摘要： Photoluminescent carbon dots have gained increasing attention in recent years due to their unique optical properties. Herein, a facile one-pot hydrothermal process is used to develop nitrogen-doped carbon dots (NCDs) with durian shell waste as the precursor and Tris base as the doping agent. The synthesized NCDs showed a quantum yield of 12.93% with a blue fluorescence under UV-light irradiation and maximum emission at 414 nm at an excitation wavelength of 340 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy showed the presence of nitrogen and oxygen functional groups on the NCD surface. The particles were quasi-spherical with an average particle diameter of 6.5 nm. The synthesized NCDs were resistant to photobleaching and stable under a wide range of pH but were negatively affected by increasing temperature. NCDs showed high selectivity to Tetracycline as the fluorescence of NCDs was quenched significantly by Tetracycline as a result of the inner filter effect. Based on sensitivity experiments, a linear relationship (R2 = 0.989) was developed over a concentration range of 0–30 μM with a detection limit of 75 nM (S/N = 3). The linear model was validated with two water samples (lake water and tap water) with relative recoveries of 98.6–108.5% and an RSD of <3.5%.