Facile Synthesis of N, S-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots from Food Waste as Fluorescent Probe for Sensitive Detection of Thiamphenicol and Its Analogues in Real Food Samples along with an Application in Bioimaging

Herein, N, S co-doped carbon quantum dots (N, S-CDs) with high absolute quantitative yield (Abs-QY) of 50.2% were produced by hydrothermal treatment of food residue crayfish shells. A new detection method of thiamphenicol (TAP) and its analogues was established by discovering the obvious fluorescence response between TAP and N, S-CDs, which achieved a wide linear range of 20–300 μg·L−1 with a detection limit (LOD) of 11.12 μg·L−1. This novel probe exhibited strong sensitivity and shows rapid response in complex food matrices (overall detection time is less than 45 min) mainly induced by static quenching. Spiked food sample recovery ranged from 97.3 to 99.34%. Further, the cell experiments of N, S-CDs were conducted, and the cell viability remained 91.76% under high concentration of N, S-CDs due to the environmentally friendly materials. The low cytotoxicity and good cytocompatibility make these N, S-CDs compatible for cell bioimaging and intracellular detection of TAP.