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Graphical abstract Schematic illustration of the formation of CQDs/ZnO@HNTs in the whole synthetic process. Highlights • We have experimentally demonstrated the carbon incorporated ZnO via coupling CQDs. A notable transformation of burger-like CQD s /ZnO morphology was observed and the HNTs have been introduced to improve the dispersity of hybrid photocatalysts. • From efficiently modulation of band structure of CQD s -based materials, the as-prepared CQD s /ZnO@HNTs display a remarkable optical excitation in photogenerated reactive oxygen species (ROS). • This work provides an efficient and novel strategy for element incorporated with introduced inorganic quantum dots owing to the quantum size effect. • It also developed a new sight of CQD s participated phase tuning for semiconductors, offering a beneficial route for expanding the application of VLD photodegradation based on band-tuning semiconductors and other low-dimension materials. Abstract Environmentally friendly photodegradation of refractory pollutants utilizing semiconductor photocatalysis evolution exhibits satisfactory efficiency and low energy consumption, but some of its unbefitting band position largely limits practical applications. The controllable band structure tuning via coupling low-dimensional materials with enormous potential in semiconductor photocatalysis, notably attractive carbon quantum dots (CQDs) induced for a better utilization of low-energy photoexcitation of promising inherent optical properties and photocatalytic performance on organic pollutant degradation. Here, a CQDs modified ZnO hybrid materials was synthesized and the CQDs preluded carbon-incorporated burger-like ZnO nanoparticles clusters were presented thus demonstrated a specific doping-effect. The dispersity improved by loading halloysite nanotube (HNTs) for efficiently photocatalytic activity enhancement. Furthermore, the band structure, excitation and photocatalytic reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation were detected to reveal the photochemical properties and plausible mechanism of CQDs hybrid nanomaterials system. It is observed that the superoxide radical (O 2 −), and singlet oxygen(1O 2) are the principal ROS agents under UV–vis excitations. This work not only displays a CQDs modified system of expanding photo-response range to visible light but also throws a way for quantum elemental incorporated on the influence of band-tuning for semiconductor- dominated photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]