In this work, a novel strategy for synthesizing carbon dots (CDs) with a quantum yield of approximately 15.36% has been established by employing a bathroom lamp as a light source. Compared with other current protocols, the method described here displayed various advantages such as environmentally friendly manipulations and low power and cost. Subsequently, we applied the CDs as a fluorescence probe for the detection of nimesulide (Nim) firstly under the optimal conditions. A linear relationship between ln(F 0/F) and the concentration of Nim was obtained in the range from 0.5 μM to 75 μM with a detection limit of 100 nM. In addition, the as-prepared CDs showed excellent biocompatibility and were applied for cell imaging, which presented great potential applications in cell imaging.
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