Highly Water-Stable Dye@Ln-MOFs for Sensitive and Selective Detection toward Antibiotics in Water

The host-guest composite, RhB@Tb-dcpcpt, is synthesized by trapping rhodamine B (RhB) into the channels of [Me2NH2][Tb3(dcpcpt)3(HCOO)]·DMF·15H2O (Tb-dcpcpt, DMF = N,N'-dimethylformamide) via an ion-exchange process. The photophysical property of RhB@Tb-dcpcpt exhibits stable columinescence of RhB and Tb3+ ions in the whole excitation range of 300-390 nm, realizing an excitation-wavelength-independent yellow light emission. Powder X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence analysis illustrate the outstanding stabilities of RhB@Tb-dcpcpt on structural and photophysical properties in water medium. Subsequently, a bifunctional sensing process toward antibiotics is designed in terms of luminescent intensity and color. As a result, RhB@Tb-dcpcpt could realize sensitive and selective detection toward nitrofuran antibiotics (nitrofurazone and nitrofurantoin) via luminescent quenching process and toward quinolone antibiotics (ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin) via luminescent color-changing process. Systematic analysis on the sensing mechanism reveals that photoinduced electron transfer and inner filter effect contribute to the realization of the sensing process.