Novel double layer lanthanide metal-organic networks for sensing applications

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry Vol. 47; no. 2; pp. 465 - 474
• Main Authors: Wang, Jun, Zhang, Qiang-Sheng, Dou, Wei, Kirillov, Alexander M, Liu, Wei-Sheng, Xu, Cong, Xu, Cai-Ling, Fang, Ran, Yang, Li-Zi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 2018
• Subjects: Acetone; Amines; Benzaldehyde; Benzene; Chemical synthesis; Coordination polymers; Detection; Fluorescence; Functional groups; Hydrothermal crystal growth; Luminescence quenching; Organic chemistry; Phenylenediamine; Thin films
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/c7dt03604c

A trifunctional aromatic building block (H L) containing three different types of functional groups (carboxyl C([double bond, length as m-dash]O)OH, aldehyde C([double bond, length as m-dash]O)H, and O-ether) was applied for the hydrothermal synthesis of two novel lanthanide 2D coordination polymers [Ln(μ-HL)(μ -L)(phen)] {Ln = Tb (1) and Eu (2); H L = 5-methoxy-(4-benzaldehyde)-1,3-benzene dicarboxylic acid; phen = 1,10-phenanthroline}. Both compounds 1 and 2 are isostructural and reveal very complicated 2D metal-organic double layers with the 3,4L27 topology. The presence of free aldehyde groups positioned outside of the double layers opens up a possibility of using them as functional groups toward sensing amines and small organic molecules. The fluorescence measurements for the Tb derivative 1 reveal that it acts as an efficient fluorescence sensor for p-phenylenediamine, benzidine and acetone molecules via a luminescence quenching effect. A similar sensing behavior was observed for the Eu compound 2. Moreover, thin-films of 1-PEG on glass (1-PEG-glass thin-film material) were fabricated and investigated for the detection of amine vapors.