Hydroxyapatite supported N-doped carbon quantum dots for visible-light photocatalysis

Development of effective and green photocatalysts that are sensitive to visible light is highly crucial. The purpose of this investigation was to develop a new hydroxyapatite (HA) supported N-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs) photocatalyst via a facile chemical strategy. The FTIR and TEM results confirmed that N-CQDs were successfully coupled with HA. The formed HA/N-CQDs composite exhibited a pronounced photocatalytic performance upon the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible-light irradiation. The degradation rate of MB by the composite was almost two times that of N-CQDs. The mechanisms for the improvement of the photocatalytic performance of the composites were discussed on the basis of the results. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.