An Acid-Resistant Hf 6 -MOF for the Luminescence Sensing of Biomarkers with High Sensitivity and Selectivity

Although the detection of biomarkers epinephrine (EP) and homovanillic acid (HO) is critical for early diagnosis and personalized medicine, the development of a luminescent sensor for their precise quantification remains an ongoing challenge. In this work, a unique porous Hf₆-based metal-organic framework (MOF), [Hf₆(μ₃-O)₄(μ₃-OH)₄(OH)₄(H₂O)₄(PPTA)₂]·xS (denoted as 1), with high acid stability was synthesized. It serves as a dual-function luminescence sensor for EP and HO detection, achieving low limits of detection of 9.3 × 10^-9 and 1.8 × 10^-7 mol/L, respectively. Besides, the thin film 1@CRG can be simply synthesized for visual detection of EP and HO, demonstrating great potential for home-testing use. This work presents a new MOF-based sensing platform, paving the way for advanced multianalyte biomarker detection in clinical diagnostics.