Biomineralization of calcium carbonate under amino acid carbon dots and its application in bioimaging

•Inspired by biomineralization, for the first time, an ACDs-CO2-Ca(OH)2 system to study the biomineralization process of CaCO3 in the presence of ACDs was developed.•The effects of different conditions on the crystal form and morphology of CaCO3 were studied in detail, and a possible biomineralization mechanism was proposed.•The spherical ACDs@CaCO3 organic–inorganic hybrid fluorescent material with good luminescence ability was prepared.•The spherical ACDs@CaCO3 have good biocompatibility, very low cytotoxicity, and can achieve cell imaging very well.