Amino-Functionalized Metal-Organic Frameworks Nanoplates-Based Energy Transfer Probe for Highly Selective Fluorescence Detection of Free Chlorine

Novel highly fluorescent NH2-MIL-53(Al) was controllably synthesized by a facile one-step hydrothermal treatment of AlCl3·6H2O and NH2-H2BDC in water with urea as a modulator. The as-synthesized NH2-MIL-53(Al) nanoplates exhibited excellent water solubility and stability. In the present work, it can be found that strong fluorescence of NH2-MIL-53(Al) nanoplates was significantly suppressed after the addition of free chlorine, and a simple sensing system for fast, highly selective direct detection of free chlorine in water was established. Compared with other fluorescent sensors for free chlorine, the present methodology has a comparable detection limit of 0.04 μM (S/N = 3) and a wide detection range of 0.05 to 15 μM. On the other hand, the traditional redox-based fluorescent probes sharply suffered from the interference of MnO4(-), Cr2O7(2-), and other oxidants with stronger oxidation capability than free chlorine while ours overcame this disadvantage. Further research suggests that it is more likely the energy transfer through N-H···O-Cl hydrogen bonding interaction between amino group and ClO(-) ions plays the key role in our system, providing a new and promising platform for free chlorine determination in water quality monitoring.