Hollow terbium metal-organic-framework spheres: preparation and their performance in Fe3+ detection

Xiaozhan Yang; Yicun Liang; Wenlin Feng; Chaolong Yang; Lian Wang; Guojia Huang; Daoyuan Wang

doi:10.1039/d1ra08088a

Hollow terbium metal-organic-framework spheres: preparation and their performance in Fe³⁺ detection

RSC Adv. 2022 Feb 1;12(7):4153-4161. doi: 10.1039/d1ra08088a. eCollection 2022 Jan 28.

Authors

Xiaozhan Yang^{1

2}, Yicun Liang¹, Wenlin Feng^{1

2}, Chaolong Yang³, Lian Wang⁴, Guojia Huang⁵, Daoyuan Wang⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Science, Chongqing University of Technology China.
² Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Green Energy Materials Technology and Systems China xiaozhan@126.com.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology China.
⁴ Guangzhou Special Pressure Equipment Inspection and Research Institute China.
⁵ Department of Department of Medical Research, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences China.
⁶ Department of Chemistry and Physics, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff USA.

Abstract

Hollow metal-organic framework (MOF) micro/nanostructures have been attracting a great amount of research interest in recent years. However, the synthesis of hollow metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is a great challenge. In this paper, by using 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (H₃BTC) as the organic ligand and 2,5-thiophenedicarboxylic acid (H₂TDC) as the competitive ligand and protective agent, hollow terbium MOFs (Tb-MOFs) spheres were synthesized by a one-pot solvothermal method. By comparing the morphology of Tb-MOFs in the presence and absence of H₂TDC, it is found that H₂TDC plays a key role in the formation of the hollow spherical structure. Single crystal analyses and element analysis confirm that H₂TDC is not involved in the coordination with Tb³⁺. Interestingly, Tb-MOFs can be used as the luminescent probes for Fe³⁺ recognition in aqueous and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solutions. In aqueous solution, the quenching constant (K _SV) is 5.8 × 10^-4 M^-1, and the limit of detection (LOD) is 2.05 μM. In DMF, the K _SV and LOD are 9.5 × 10^-4 M^-1 and 0.80 μM, respectively. The sensing mechanism is that the excitation energy absorption of Fe³⁺ ions reduces the energy transfer efficiency from the ligand to Tb³⁺ ions.