Microwave-assisted synthesis of xylan-derived carbon quantum dots for tetracycline sensing

A simple and direct microwave-assisted method was used to prepare nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs) in a single step using an ammonia solution of xylan as the precursor at a treatment temperature of 200 degrees C and an input power of 200 W within just 10 min. It was found that the N-CQDs synthesized by such green, economical, and fast routes possess high crystal quality, favorable photoluminescence properties, and high tolerance for salts and metal ions. More interestingly, we found that the as-prepared N-CQDs without any modification exhibited high selectivity and sensitivity towards tetracycline antibiotics owing to an inner-filter effect. At the optimum conditions, a novel sensing platform for sensitive detection of tetracycline in a linear range of 0.05-20 mu M with a detection limit of 6.49 nM was established, suggesting a promising application for the quantification of tetracycline in biomedical analysis.