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The distance-dependent based sensing mechanism, such as fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption of gold nanoparticles, has been used widely in visual detection. In this work, we report another distance-dependent detection method for nucleoside triphosphates (NTPs) based on carbon dots (CDs) ( 1 O 2 donor) and 9, 10-diphenylanthracene-2-boronic acid (DABA, 1 O 2 acceptor). The CDs can generate singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) which allows diffusion within 200 nm. Thus, the distance between CDs and DABA decreased through binding of NTPs (<200 nm), leading to absorption changes of DABA under light irradiation due to 1 O 2 trapping. This sensing system (CDs@DABA) has high selectivity for the detection of NTPs due to the double molecular recognition and a linear response in the 0–80 μM concentration range was accomplished with the detection limit as low as 4.35 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]