Construction of a room-temperature phosphorescent quantum dot probe and quantitative detection of thyroxine and carbamazepine

•A new quantitative detection system for thyroxine (T4) and carbamazepine (CBZ) was constructed.•The probe was established based on the static quenching of CTAB/QDs compound toward thyroxine and Triiodothyronine, and carbamazepine maybe accelerated the disintegration of Thyroxine, further to generate triiodothyronine.•The QD/CTAB composite probe exhibits anti-interference (which can overcome the autofluorescence of biological samples), nontoxicity, flexibility, convenience and low-cost to realize the quantitative detection of T4 and CBZ in human serum samples.