Multimodal Fluorescent MOF@BODIPY Platform: Bridging Sensing and Mechanistic Insight

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemical Sensing
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Hybrid metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with integrated organic chromophores offer tunable photophysics for optical sensing.
• Photoresponsive chromophores in MOFs enable sensitive detection of guest-framework interactions via luminescent signals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a hybrid luminescent platform, MOF@BODIPY, for advanced optical sensing.
• To demonstrate dual-channel excitation for simultaneous quantitative detection and mechanistic insight.
• To investigate the sensing mechanism and performance for Fe³⁺ ion detection.

Main Methods:

• Covalent functionalization of UiO-66-NH₂ MOF with BODIPY dyes.
• Utilizing dual excitation channels (400 nm for MOF scaffold, 500 nm for BODIPY).
• Employing fluorescence spectroscopy and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy for analysis.

Main Results:

• MOF@BODIPY showed strong fluorescence quenching for Fe³⁺ ions (LOD = 0.07 µM) under BODIPY excitation.
• MOF scaffold excitation revealed fluorescence enhancement, indicating coordination-driven suppression of nonradiative pathways.
• Time-resolved spectroscopy confirmed static quenching at the dye level and dynamic modulation within the MOF framework.

Conclusions:

• The MOF@BODIPY platform provides a versatile, low-cost, and highly sensitive approach for multimodal optical sensing.
• Dual optical functionality enables simultaneous detection and mechanistic understanding, bridging sensing performance with photophysics.
• This hybrid material shows significant potential for next-generation optical sensors in environmental applications.