A Novel Composite of Zinc-based Metal Organic Framework Embedded with SnO2 Nanoparticle as a Photocatalyst for Methylene Blue Dye Degradation as well as Fluorometric Probe for Nitroaromatic Compounds Detection

Deepika; Heena; Manpreet Kaur; Karamjit Singh; Ashok Kumar Malik

doi:10.1007/s10895-022-03055-5

A Novel Composite of Zinc-based Metal Organic Framework Embedded with SnO₂ Nanoparticle as a Photocatalyst for Methylene Blue Dye Degradation as well as Fluorometric Probe for Nitroaromatic Compounds Detection

J Fluoresc. 2023 Mar;33(2):613-629. doi: 10.1007/s10895-022-03055-5. Epub 2022 Dec 5.

Authors

Deepika¹, Heena², Manpreet Kaur¹, Karamjit Singh³, Ashok Kumar Malik⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Punjabi University, Patiala, 147 002, Punjab, India.
² GSSDGS Khalsa College, Patiala, 147 001, Punjab, India.
³ Department of Physics, Punjabi University, Patiala, 147 002, Punjab, India.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Punjabi University, Patiala, 147 002, Punjab, India. malik_chem2002@yahoo.co.uk.

PMID: 36469207
DOI: 10.1007/s10895-022-03055-5

Abstract

A facile bottom up synthesis technique is opted for the preparation of novel composite SnO₂@Zn-BTC. This synthesized composite is fully characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS), and Elemental mapping techniques. Optical analysis was performed using UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence studies. Further this composite was utilized for the first time as a photocatalyst for methylene blue (MB) dye degradation under sunlight irradiation. This photocatalyst shows degradation efficiency of 89% within 100 min of exposure of sunlight. In addition to that, the synthesized composite can be utilized as a fluorescence probe for detection of NACs via 'turn-off" quenching response. This composite is extremely sensitive towards 3-NA in aqueous medium with quenching efficiency of 75.42%, which is highest quenching rate till reported. There occurs no interference for detecting 3-NA in the presence of other NACs. The linear fitting of the Stern-Volmer plot for 3-NA shows large quenching constant (K_SV) of 0.0115 ppb^-1 with correlation coefficient R² = 0.9943 proves higher sensitivity of composite in sensing process. The outstanding sensitivity of composite for 3-NA is certified by the low detection limit (LOD) of 25 ppb (0.18 µM). Photoinduced Electron Transfer (PET) and Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) are the mechanisms used for clarification of quenching response of PL intensity by NACs via density functional theory (DFT) calculations and extent spectral overlap, respectively. Hence, synthesized composite is verified as multi-component system to act as excellent photocatalyst as well as fluorescent sensor.

Keywords: 3-Nitroaniline (3-NA); Crystallography; Density functional theory (DFT); Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET); Fluorescent sensor; MB dye; Morphology; NACs; Photocatalyst; Photoinduced Electron Transfer (PET); SnO2@Zn-BTC composite.