A Facile Strategy for the Preparation of Carboxymethylcellulose‐Derived Polymer Dots and Their Application to Detect Tetracyclines

Abstract Developing nonconjugated fluorescent polymer dots based on cellulose materials through a simple and economical method is of high value for sensing or imaging. However, great challenges are still being suffered. Herein, strong blue‐green emission water‐soluble cellulose polymer dots (CPDs) are synthesized with excellent stability using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and citric acid (CA) as precursors via a mild reaction and facile synthesis process. Near‐spherical nanoparticles with an average size of approximately 11.3 nm and quantum yield of 11.5% are obtained. Importantly, CPDs can be utilized as an excellent fluorescent probe for the detection of tetracyclines (TCs) in aqueous solutions through fluorescence quenching via the inner filter effect. The detection limit for fluorescent CPDs for TC detection is found to be as low as 4.1 × 10 ‐9 m , and two good linear relationships for TC concentration ranging from 51.8 × 10 ‐9 to 256.8 × 10 ‐9 m ( R 2 = 0.996) and 0 × 10 ‐6 to 15.3 × 10 ‐6 m ( R 2 = 0.997) are obtained. Finally, the fluorescent CPD fluorescent probe is successfully utilized to detect TC in real samples, including tap water, milk, and river water.