Ratiometric fluorescence detection of tetracycline antibiotic based on a polynuclear lanthanide metal–organic framework

Tetracyclines (TCs) are commonly employed for bacterial infections treatment present in humans as well as animals. However, antibiotics abuse generates a substantial danger to environment and human health. In this regard, the development of efficient and straightforward methods for detection of TCs with selectivity and sensitivity is highly significant yet challenging. Herein, we synthesize a polynuclear lanthanide metal-organic framework (Tb-L1) with one-dimensional channels, featuring an estimated diameter of 1.1 nm along the c axis. Meanwhile, Tb-L1 exhibits good sensitivity towards tetracycline (TC), manifesting limit of detection (LOD) of 8 ng mL−1. Furthermore, Tb-L1 can efficiently discriminate chlortetracycline (CTC), oxytetracycline (OTC), and doxycycline (DOX) from TC, because of the excellent fingerprint relationship between TCs and emission peak-height ratio of lanthanide to ligand.