Bombyx mori silk, a natural nitrogen-rich biopolymer protein, is earth-abundant and sustainable. In this study, nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs) derived from Bombyx mori silk fibroin are immobilized onto TiO₂ nanotube arrays (TiO₂ NTAs) by a facile hydrothermal process. The resulting N-CQDs decorated TiO₂ NTA heterostructures (N-CQDs@TiO₂ NTAs) display a maximum incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) of 32.5% under 450 nm monochromatic light in neutral solution. Compared with pristine TiO₂ NTAs, the N-CQDs-decorated TiO₂ NTAs demonstrate significantly improved photocatalytic efficiency during the degradation of organic contaminants. Furthermore, the constructed heterostructures are used to split water to investigate their photocatalytic promise, yielding the maximum H₂ and O₂ production rates of 30.12 and 14.96 μmol cm⁻² h⁻¹, respectively. Optimizing the N-CQD coating is found to effectively tune the bandgap and up-conversion capability of the heterostructures, enabling unique photon harvest and boosting photocatalytic activity. This study provides a proof of concept that nonmetal, abundant, and sustainable materials can be exploited to enhance the photocatalytic capability of TiO₂, imparting a variety of unique applications such as water purification and chemical fuel production.

家蚕蚕丝是一种富含氮的天然生物聚合物蛋白，富含地球，并且具有可持续性。在这项研究中，衍生自氮掺杂的碳的量子点（N-CQDs）家蚕的丝素蛋白被固定到的TiO ₂纳米管阵列（的TiO _2个通过一个浅显的水热方法NTAS）。所得的N-CQDs修饰的TiO ₂ NTA异质结构（N-CQDs @ TiO ₂ NTA）在中性溶液中在450 nm单色光下显示的最大入射光电子转换效率（IPCE）为32.5％。与原始TiO ₂ NTAs相比，用N-CQDs装饰的TiO ₂NTA证明在降解有机污染物的过程中光催化效率得到了显着提高。此外，所构造的异质结构用于分解水以研究其光催化前景，分别产生的最大H ₂和O ₂生产率分别为30.12和14.96μmolcm ^-2 h ^-1。发现优化N-CQD涂层可有效调整异质结构的带隙和上转换能力，从而实现独特的光子收获并增强光催化活性。这项研究提供了一种概念证明，可以利用非金属，丰富且可持续的材料来增强TiO ₂的光催化能力。，可提供多种独特的应用，例如水净化和化学燃料生产。