New carbon dots based on glycerol and urea and its application in the determination of tetracycline in urine samples

Abstract The current study proposes a fast one-pot microwave assisted synthesis of new carbon dots (CDs) based on glycerol and urea. The novel carbon nanoparticles (GUCDs) have been appropriately characterized and exhibited good luminescent properties with a quantum yield of about 9.8%. Interestingly, the GUCDs are able to selectively interact with tetracycline class antibiotics, which produce a decrease in the native fluorescence of the CDs. On the base of these features, a new analytical method has been developed for the determination of tetracycline. The proposed method has shown satisfactory analytical parameters, such as good linearity range –between 0.5 and 25 μM (R 2  = 0.999 7 )– and an acceptable detection limit (165 nM). Moreover, the new method has been successfully applied for tetracycline determination in urine samples with good recoveries (94.7–103%) and precision (4.6 RSD%).