A Terbium Metal-Organic Framework for Highly Selective and Sensitive Luminescence Sensing of Hg2+ Ions in Aqueous Solution.

A series of isomorphic lanthanide metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) Ln(TATAB)⋅(DMF)4 (H2 O)(MeOH)0.5 (LnTATAB, Ln=Eu, Tb, Sm, Dy, Gd; H3 TATAB=4,4',4''-s-triazine-1,3,5-triyltri-p-aminobenzoic acid) have been solvothermally synthesized and structurally characterized. Among these MOFs, TbTATAB exhibits good water stability and a high fluorescence quantum yield. Because mercury ions (Hg2+ ) have a high affinity to nitrogen atoms, and the space between multiple nitrogen atoms from triazine and imino groups is suitable for interacting with Hg2+ ions, TbTATAB shows highly selective and sensitive detection of Hg2+ in aqueous solution with a detection limit of 4.4 nm. Furthermore, it was successfully applied to detect Hg2+ ions in natural water samples.