Selective, Fast-Response, and Regenerable Metal-Organic Framework for Sampling Excess Fluoride Levels in Drinking...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Environmental Science
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Fluoride (F-) contamination in drinking water above 1.5 ppm causes severe health issues, including skeletal fluorosis, endemic in 25+ countries.
• Existing methods for detecting fluoride contamination are often expensive, inaccessible, or not easily reusable.
• Developing affordable and reliable water sampling techniques for F- is critical for global public health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel, reusable material for detecting fluoride ions in aqueous solutions.
• To integrate this material into a portable device for remote water sampling.
• To validate the device's performance against established analytical methods.

Main Methods:

• A lanthanide-based luminescent metal-organic framework, SION-105, featuring a boron receptor site, was synthesized.
• SION-105's specific and electrostatic interactions with F- were characterized.
• A portable sampling device incorporating SION-105 was constructed and tested with natural groundwater samples.

Main Results:

• SION-105 demonstrated effective F- detection in aqueous solutions through specific structural interactions.
• The material exhibited high regenerability, usable for over 10 cycles, outperforming many existing sensors.
• The portable device showed excellent agreement with ion chromatography analysis for F- concentrations in groundwater from three countries.

Conclusions:

• SION-105 represents a significant advancement in reusable fluoride sensing materials.
• The developed portable device offers a reliable and accessible tool for monitoring F- contamination in diverse environmental settings.
• This technology has the potential to improve public health by enabling widespread and affordable water quality assessment.