Molecularly Imprinted Tb-MOFs Fluorescent System for the Selective Detection of 4-Nitrophenol in Environmental Water

In this paper, a molecular imprinted metal-organic framework was prepared by a simple one-pot method using lanthanide terbium ions as the metal source, 2-aminoterephthalic acid as the organic ligand, and 4-nitrophenol as the template molecule at 120 °C. The materials of imprinted and non-imprinted metal-organic framework were characterized and analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller Specific Surface Area Analysis and fluorescence methods, etc., respectively. The fluorescence of the imprinted metal-organic framework was quenched by 4-nitrophenol in water, and there was a linear correlation between the fluorescence quenching efficiency of molecular imprinted metal-organic framework and the logarithm of 4-nitrophenol concentration in the range of 10-500 µmol L^- 1. The limit of detection was 3.3 µmol L^- 1 (3σ) and the limit of quantitation was 11.0 µmol L^- 1 (10σ). The molecular imprinted metal-organic framework was used for the determination of 4-nitrophenol concentration in water samples with the recoveries of 93.5-102.9% and the relative standard deviations less than 3.63%. The molecular imprinted metal-organic framework has the advantages of easy preparation, high stability, good sensitivity and selectivity, which has potential application for the detection of 4-nitrophenol in the environment samples.