A simple and facile hydrothermal approach for the synthesis of highly green luminescent nitrogen doped carbon quantum dots (NCQDs) is reported. The prepared NCQDs show narrow size distribution of 2-3 nm, abundant surface functional groups and good water solubility. To showcase the potential of these NCQDs as a solar light harvesting material, we designed NCQDs sensitized ZnO nanoparticles based photoanodes for photovoltaic solar cells. As a result, NCQDs sensitized ZnO photoanodes exhibited 75% higher photoconversion efficiency when compared to that of bare ZnO photoanodes. The characterization and optical properties of NCQDs sensitized ZnO photoanodes is also discussed. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.