Lanthanide metal-organic frameworks as multifunctional luminescent sensor for detecting cations, anions and organic solvent molecules in aqueous solution

A series of water-stable isostructural mono/bimetallic lanthanide metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) {[Eu5xTb5(1−x)(OH)6(TZI)3(DMA)1.5(H2O)10.5]·DMA·0.5H2O}n (x = 1.0 (1), 0.5 (3), 0.4 (4), 0.3 (5), 0.2 (6), 0.1 (7), 0.05 (8), 0 (2), H3TZI = 5-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)isophthalic acid) were synthesized. These Ln-MOFs exhibit 3D frameworks in which 1D chains based on pentanuclear [Ln5(µ3-OH)6(COO)5]4+ clusters are linked by TZI backbones. The luminescent investigations revealed that compounds 1 and 2 not only exhibit characteristic Eu3+ and Tb3+ emissions in the red and green regions, respectively, but also can sensitively and selectively detect Fe3+ cations, CO32−, PO43−, AsO43− anions and acetone molecules in aqueous solution. In addition, the luminescent colors of the bimetallic (Tb5(1−x):Eu5x) compounds can easily be tuned by doping isostructural Ln- MOFs with Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions. This work presents some good candidate materials for the potential multifunctional sensors.