Post-Synthetic Modification of an Amino-Functionalized Metal-Organic Framework for Highly In Situ Luminescent Detection of Mercury (II)

Chen Ji; Li Pei; Junyi Qin; Pengyan Wu; Nuo Su; Ting Zhang; Yexin Zhang; Jian Wang

doi:10.3390/nano13202784

Post-Synthetic Modification of an Amino-Functionalized Metal-Organic Framework for Highly In Situ Luminescent Detection of Mercury (II)

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Oct 17;13(20):2784. doi: 10.3390/nano13202784.

Authors

Chen Ji¹, Li Pei¹, Junyi Qin¹, Pengyan Wu¹, Nuo Su¹, Ting Zhang¹, Yexin Zhang¹, Jian Wang¹

Affiliation

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Green Synthetic Chemistry for Functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China.

Abstract

A sulfur-containing metal-organic framework, donated as UiO-66-NSMe, was prepared by the post-synthetic modification (PSM) of UiO-66-NH₂ with 2-(Methylthio)benzaldehyde, and the successful synthesis of PSM was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), FT-IR and ¹H NMR studies. According to the characteristics of mercury thiophilic, UiO-66-NSMe could be used as a luminescent sensor for Hg²⁺ detection with a high selectivity and sensitivity (K_sv = 2.5 × 10⁴ M^-1; LOD = 20 nM), which could be attributed to the coordination between sulfur sites and Hg²⁺ based on XPS results. In practical applications, UiO-66-NSMe yielded satisfactory recovery rates (ranging from 96.1% to 99.5%) when it was employed for detecting Hg²⁺ in spiked environmental samples. Furthermore, UiO-66-NSMe was successfully employed to detect mercury (II) residues with the in situ rapid nondestructive imaging in simulated fresh agricultural products. Thus, this PSM strategy could provide good guidance for environmental protection methodologies in the future.

Keywords: fluorescent sensor; mercury (II); metal–organic frameworks (MOFs); post-synthetic modification (PSM); sulfur-containing.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Major Basic Research Project of Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (21KJA150001), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province for Outstanding Youth (No. BK20180105), the Top-notch Academic Programs Project of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (TAPP), and the Jiangsu Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for College Students (No. 202210320142Y).