Pharmaceutical residues in food samples: occurrence, toxicity, fluorescence quenching mechanisms, and analysis using carbon dot-based fluorescent probes.

Carbon dots (CDs) are an important class of carbon-based nanomaterials and represent a relatively new type of fluorescent nanomaterial that has attracted extensive research interest. Their popularity has increased rapidly due to several advantageous characteristics, including low toxicity, chemical stability, tunable fluorescence behavior, good water solubility, and favorable physicochemical properties. Owing to these features, CDs have been widely explored as sensing materials for the detection of various targets. In this review, pharmaceutical residues in food samples and their associated toxicity are discussed, along with the fluorescence sensing mechanisms and applications of CD-based sensors for the detection of a lot of pharmaceutical drugs in food samples, including tetracyclines, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, sulfonamides, metronidazole, moxifloxacin, penicillin and others. Finally, the future prospects of using CDs for pharmaceutical analysis in food samples are also reviewed.