A highly stable, luminescent and layered zinc(II)-MOF: Iron(III)/copper(II) dual sensing and guest-assisted exfoliation

A highly stable and luminescent metal-organic framework (LMOF) with layered structure, namely, C6H4N5OZn (1) has been successfully achieved and fully characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffractions, fluorescence titration and thermogravimetry. This blue-light emitting compound 1 exhibit outstanding stability and can detect Fe3+ and Cu2+ in water specifically, presenting potential application in the field of fluorescent probe technology. Fluorescence titration experiments indicate that the detection of Fe3+ ions by 1 is more significant than that of Cu2+ ions in terms of K-sv value. Furthermore, guest-assisted exfoliation of layered MOF 1 is efficiently carried out through ether O-H hydrogen bond or pi center dot center dot center dot pi interactions between the layered host structure and intercalated guest molecules (4,4'-oxybisbenzoic acid and triphenylamine). Tyndal scattering was observed in the suspensions of obtained MOF nanosheets. This study shows that the compound 1 with unique metal ion sensing properties can be applied as a probe material in water pollution treatment field, but also opens up the opportunity for synthesizing luminescent MONs through the bottom-up guest intercalation methodology. (C) 2019 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.