∙OH-responsive antioxidant carbon dots simultaneously act as scavenger and fluorescent probe for rapid detection of edaravone.

Edaravone (EDA) is widely used in neurological diseases, and rational drug use requires accurate and sensitive techniques for drug quality control and therapeutic drug monitoring. Based on the reducing ability of EDA to reactive oxygen species, herein, a simple fluorescence sensing platform was fabricated for EDA detection using a kind of nitrogen-doped carbon dots with antioxidant and response properties to hydroxyl radical (•OH). The carbon dots (CE-CDs) were synthesized via a one-step hydrothermal method using citric acid and ethylenediamine, achieving a 56.89% quantum yield. CE-CDs exhibited a sensitive quenching response to •OH through dynamic quenching effect (DQE), while EDA acted as a scavenger to •OH to restore fluorescence intensity through competitive reaction, enabling a "turn-on" mode of CE-CDs' fluorescence for testing EDA. The method achieved a detection limit of 0.12 μg/mL with a linear range of 0.2-7.0 μg/mL. Excellent anti-interference capability and reproducibility were demonstrated. This approach provides a rapid and potential quantitative method for EDA analysis in quality control and biomedical samples.