Highly luminescent nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) were prepared from glucose and ammonia as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. The N-GQDs showed a strongemissionat 458 nmwith excitation at 360 nm. The N-GQDs exhibited analytical potential as sensing probes for silver ions determination.Factors affecting the fluorescence sensing of Ag+ ions such as pH, N-GQDs concentration and incubation time were studied using Box-Behnken experimental design. The optimum conditions were determined as pH 7, N-GQDs concentration 1 mg/mL and time 60 min. It suggested that N-GQDs exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity toward Ag+. The linear range of N-GQDs and the limit of detection (LOD) were 0.2–40 μM and 168 nM, respectively. The N-GQDs-based Ag+ ions sensorwassuccessfullyappliedtothedeterminationofAg+ intap water and real river water samples
