A porous and luminescent metal-organic framework containing triazine group for sensing and imaging of Zn2+.

The rapid development of functionalization of lanthanide metal organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) offers the potential for biomarkers sensing. It is closely associated with biology science and clinic medicine. In this work, a porous and luminescent terbium metal-organic framework TbTATB has been designed and solvothermally synthesized. The PXRD results demonstrated the commendable stability of this sensor. Enhanced luminescence of TbTATB origin from Tb 3+ was observed in the presence of Zn 2+ , which is a kind of biologically important ion. This turn-on pattern was utilized for sensing Zn 2+ . TbTATB exhibited excellent sensitivity and selectivity towards Zn 2+ in aqueous solution with the detection limit of 10.5 nM. What's more, it has fairly acceptable biocompatibility which was fully verified by cytotoxicity test. In the state of coexistence with living cells, visible increased green light of TbTATB emerged after the addition of Zn 2+ , while the survival state of cells was hardly disturbed. Markedly, this is the first time that a luminescent Tb-MOF can act as a sensor for sensing and imaging of Zn 2+ ions simultaneously. What's more, the results also guide a new application direction of MOFs and supply a new way for the detection of other analytes in biological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]