Meena, S.Sethi, M.Saini, S.Kumar, K.Saini, P.Meena, S.Kashyap, S.Yadav, M.Meena, M.L.Dandia, A.Nirmal, N.K.Parewa, V.2026-02-042024Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2024, 660, , pp. 756-770219797https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2024.01.079https://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/21181Despite the growing emphasis on eco-friendly nanomaterials as energy harvesters, scientists are actively searching for metal-free photocatalysts to be used in environmental remediation strategies. Developing renewable resource-based carbon quantum dots (CQDs) as the sole photocatalyst to harvest visible light for efficient pollutant degradation is crucial yet challenging, particularly for addressing the escalating issue of water deterioration. Moreover, the photocatalytic decomposition of H<inf>2</inf>O<inf>2</inf> under visible light irradiation remains an arduous task. Based on this, we designed two types of CQDs, C-CQDs (carboxylic-rich) and A-CQDs (amine-rich) with distinct molecular surfaces. Owing to the higher amount of upward band bending induced by amine-rich molecular surface, A-CQDs efficiently harvest the visible light and prevent recombination kinetics resulting in prolonged lifetimes (25 ps), and augmented charge carrier density (35.7 × 1018) of photoexcited charge carriers. A-CQDs enabled rapid visible-light-driven photolysis of H<inf>2</inf>O<inf>2</inf> (k = 0.058 min−1) and produced higher quantity of •OH radicals (0.158 μmol/sec) for the mineralization of petroleum waste, BETX (i.e. Benzene, Ethylbenzene, Toluene and Xylene) (k = 0.017–0.026 min−1) and real textile wastewater (k = 0.026 min−1). To assess comparative toxicities of both remediated and non-remediated real wastewater samples in a time and dose depended manner, Drosophila melanogaster was used as a model organism. The findings unequivocally demonstrate the potential of remediated wastewater for watering urban forestry. © 2024 Elsevier Inc.BiodegradationCarbonCarbon Quantum DotsDegradationDeteriorationFree radicalsHarvestingNanocrystalsPhotocatalytic activityPhotolysisWater pollutionWater treatmentA-carbonCarbon quantum dotsEnvironmental remediationIe benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xyleneLight-harvestingMolecular surfacesOH radicalReal wastewaterVisible lightVisible-light-drivenSemiconductor quantum dotsaromatic hydrocarbonbenzenecarbondissolved oxygenethylbenzenehydroxyl radicalpetroleumquantum dottoluenexyleneaminehydrogen peroxidenanomaterialwaterArticlebiochemical oxygen demandcharge densitychemical oxygen demandchemical reaction kineticscontrolled studycrystal structurecrystallographycyclic voltammetryDrosophila melanogasterelectronelectron spin resonancelight harvesting systemmineralizationphotoluminescencephotolysisquantitative analysissurface propertyultraviolet visible spectroscopywaste water managementwater qualityX ray diffractionX ray photoemission spectroscopyarticledecompositiondegradationecosystem restorationelectric potentialgenetic recombinationharvestingirradiationkineticslightmalepollutanttextilewastewater