Recognition of H2PO4(-) and Cu2+ in water by luminescent terbium silica xerogel.

Terbium silica hybrid material with imidazole ring that can be emissive in water has been designed and showed host-guest interactions with specific ions (cations and anions). In detail, we studied the sensing abilities of this material by addition of the anions H(2)PO(4)(-), HSO(4)(-), F(-), Cl(-), Br(-) and I(-) to water suspension of the derived powders. Only dihydrogen phosphate resulted in the quenching of the lanthanide luminescence (detection limit 10(-5) M). The same way was found in Cu(2+) ions which also gave rise to luminescence quenching (detection limit 10(-5) M). More interestingly, luminescent sol-gel films were successfully prepared by the same materials and exhibited emission responses to H(2)PO(4)(-) and Cu(2+). For the sake of improving its mechanical property, the robust and flexible inorganic/PMMA hybrid material with sensing capability was also developed for future use. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010