Dual-emission lanthanide metal-organic framework as a luminescence sensor for nitrofuran antibiotics and pesticide detection

In recent years, there has been an increasing concern for health and food safety due to the severe environmental pollution caused by the overuse of antibiotics and pesticides. Effective and accurate detection of these species is of great importance in many fields. In this paper, a two-dimensional lanthanide organic framework [Tb(dobpdc)1.5(DEA)2]n (1) was synthesized using 4,4′-dihydroxy-3,3′-biphenyl dicarboxylic acid ligand (H2L) with Tb(III) ion in the atmosphere of N,N'-diethylacetamide (DEA) and deionized water as solvents by solvothermal method. Compound 1 displays a single excitation double emission in aqueous suspensions. The luminescence properties of 1 were exploited as a multi-responsive luminescence sensor for nitrofuran antibiotics (nitrofurazone, nitrofurantoin) and triazine pesticides (metamitron) with a low detection limit and high selectivity via dual emission “turn-off” luminescence quenching. 1 has also been successfully applied to the construction of portable test strips for the detection of antibiotics and pesticides. In addition, the mechanism of fluorescence quenching has also been further discussed.