Carbon dot-based fluorescent sensors for pharmaceutical detection: Current innovations, challenges, and future prospects.

Environmental contamination by pharmaceuticals has become a matter of concern as they are released in sewage systems at trace levels, thus impacting biological systems. Increasing concerns about the low-level occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment demands sensitive and selective monitoring. Owing to their high sensitivity and specificity carbon dots (CDs) have emerged as suitable fluorescent sensors.

Selective detection of azelnidipine in pharmaceuticals via carbon dot mediated spectrofluorimetric method: A green approach.

A spectrofluorimetric method using fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) was developed for the selective detection of azelnidipine (AZEL) pharmaceutical in the presence of other drugs. In this study, N-doped CDs (N-CDs) were synthesized through a single-step hydrothermal process, using citric acid and urea as precursor materials. The prepared N-CDs showed a highly intense blue fluorescence emission at 447 nm, with a photoluminescence quantum yield of ~21.