NBS–rCDs(OH−) chemiluminescence analysis system for the determination of cobalt ions

•A novel sensing system has been designed for cobalt ions detection.•A green chemical oxidation by hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid is applied.•The CL mechanism can develop a novel Co2 + analytical method for monitoring.

A novel sensing system has been designed for cobalt ion detection based on a cobalt ion improved chemiluminescence (CL) in N-bromosuccinimide(NBS)-reduced carbon quantum dot (rCD) (OH−) system. The mechanism of this CL analysis system has been preliminarily studied. In this work, it was demonstrated that this facile methodology offers rapid, sensitive and reliable detection for cobalt ions with a detection limit as low as 3.252 × 10− 6 mol/L and a linearity range from 1.004 × 10− 5 to 1.004 × 10− 3 mol/L (r = 0.9990), which has promising application prospects.