NH2-rich Carbon Quantum Dots: A protein-responsive probe for detection and identification

•NH2-rich carbon quantum dots were found to be a promising protein-responsive probe.•Detection of eight different proteins (four metallic and four non-metallic) was successfully performed in the range of 5–40nM.•A fast “nose”-based strategy to discriminate proteins was developed by combining materials like carbon quantum dots, Cu2+ and EDTA.•83% of identification accuracy was found for the randomized unknown set of analyte proteins at 40nM.