Smart cationic coordination polymer: A single-crystal-to-single-crystal approach for simultaneous detection and removal of perchlorate in aqueous media

As a kind of novel persistent pollutant, perchlorate has been received a great deal of attention on toxicology transfer, degradation mode and remediation, making it an urgent task to exploit smart multifunctional material for simultaneous adsorption and detection of ClO4− in aqueous media. Here, a water-stable cationic porous coordination polymer (named as 1 ∩ NO3) has been rationally designed and constructed to achieve this goal. The resultant 1 ∩ NO3 exhibits fast sorption kinetics (30 min) and excellent capacity (108.70 mg/g) toward ClO4− anion with good repeatability and high selectivity. Luckily, the structure of ClO4−-loaded framework can be obtained directly via SC-SC approach, which proves the obvious spatial confinement of 1 ∩ NO3 towards ClO4− anion. Moreover, the fluorescence of 1 ∩ NO3 has dependent change with the concentration of ClO4−, making it as an excellent sensor with superior selective and sensitive (17.4 μg/L). It is much lower than the acceptable limit (24.5 μg/L) in drinking water standard of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These indicate that the smart adsorbent 1 ∩ NO3 is expected to be used in the synchronous detection and adsorption of ClO4− in aqueous solutions, providing a viable option in water quality monitoring and wastewater treatment.