Industrial pollution and harmful chemicals seriously affect environment and human health. Styrene is a common air toxicant with widespread exposure sources, including smoking, automobile exhaust, and plastic pollutants. Phenylglyoxylic acid (PGA) is a typical biomarker for exposed styrene. Therefore, it is crucial to quickly identify and quantitatively detect PGA. Herein, an ultrastable terbium metal-organic framework (Tb-MOF 1) was developed, and the luminescence film (1/PLA) consisting of polylactic acid (PLA) and 1 was fabricated as a sensor for rapid detection of PGA. The sensor possesses the advantages of efficient detection [limit of detection (LOD) is 1.05 × 10-4 mg/mL] and rapid response speed (less than 10 s) for PGA in urine. Furthermore, this sensor exhibits high stability, outstanding anti-interference ability, and excellent recyclability. Based on this film technology, a paper-based probe was then developed for portable and convenient detection. The probe could easily distinguish different concentrations of PGA under the naked eye toward practical sensing applications. Meanwhile, photoinduced electron transfer was demonstrated to be responsible for the luminescence sensing. Hence, this study indicates that Tb-MOF is a promising material to detect PGA for evaluating the effect of styrene on the body.
Keywords: luminescence sensors; luminescent films; phenylglyoxylic acid; rapid detection; stable metal−organic frameworks.