A luminescent Eu-based MOFs material for the sensitive detection of nitro explosives and development of fingerprint

Rapid detection of explosives and fingerprint development are of great significance to the detection of cases. Lanthanide metal–organic framework materials (Ln-MOFs) not only have various structures, but also have unique luminescence properties, which is a promising fluorescence sensing material. Herein, a strong red fluorescent Eu-MOFs ([Eu3(μ3-OH)(NDC)3(HCOO)3)] which were assembled by a 12-linked secondary unit ([Eu3(μ3-OH)(COO)6] with a linear dicarboxylic acid ligand H2NDC (2,6-naphthalic acid) was selected as a chemical sensor to selectively detect common nitro explosives through the phenomenon of fluorescence quenching. The results showed that the Eu-MOF exhibited high selectivity and sensitive fluorescence quenching response to picric acid (PA), and could be reused after being washed with ethanol. In addition, the strong fluorescence of Eu-MOF powder leads to its application in developing sweat-sebum latent fingerprints on different impermeable surfaces successfully via the powder dusting method. Therefore, it is expected to play an nonnegligible role in the investigation and trial.