Solvo-thermal synthesis of a unique cluster-based nano-porous zinc(II) luminescent metal-organic framework for highly sensitive detection of anthrax biomarker and dichromate.

In this work a flexible multi-dentate 4,4'-(1H-1,2,4-triazole-1-yl) methylene-bis(benzonic acid) (HL) ligand has been employed, a unique cluster-based nano-porous luminescent zinc(II) metal-organic framework {[Zn(μ-L)]·(DMAC)} (1) (DMAC = Dimethylacetamide) has been isolated under solvo-thermal conditions. The HL ligand adopts hexa-dentate coordination modes via one triazole nitrogen atom and four aromatic carboxylate oxygen atoms, which bridge the neighboring six-coordinated Zn centers, leading to a three-dimensional (3D) nano-porous metal organic framework. A PLATON program analysis suggests the total potential solvent area volume is 2028.9 Å, which occupy 62.5% percent of the unit cell volume (3248.4 Å). PXRD Patterns of the as-synthesized samples 1 have been determined confirming the purity of the bulky samples. Photo-luminescent properties indicate strong fluorescent emissions of 1 at the room temperature. Further photo-luminescent measurements show that 1 can exhibit highly sensitive real-time luminescence sensing of anthrax biomarker dipicolinic acid (DPA) with high quenching efficiency (K = 1.48 × 10 M) and low detection limit (0.298 μM (S/N = 3)). Meanwhile 1 also exhibits highly selective and sensitive luminescence sensing for CrO ions in aqueous solutions with high quenching efficiency K = 1.22 × 10 L·mol and low detection limit (0.023 μM (S/N = 3)). Therefore 1 can be used a unique multi-functional 3D cluster-based metal organic material in sensitive detection and effective detection of environment pollutants and biomarker molecules.