Highly selective luminescent sensing of Cu2+ in aqueous solution based on a Eu(III)-centered periodic mesoporous organosilicas hybrid

• Main Authors: Heng Li, Yajuan Li, Zheng Zhang, Xuelei Pang, Xudong Yu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-06-01
• Series: Materials & Design
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264127519301492

Using Pluronic P123 surfactant as template, a periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) functionalized with 4′-(4-carboxy-methyleneoxy phenyl)-2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine (L-COOH) was successfully prepared via co-condensation using 1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane (BTESE) and the modified L-COOH (L-COOH-NH2). This terpyridine moiety forms interesting chelates to europium ions and enhances the luminescence of Eu3+ ions. Thus, a novel luminescent hybrid material was developed via linking Eu3+ complex Eu(NTA)3(H2O)2 to L-COOH-functionalized PMO material (L-COOH-PMO) using ligand exchange reactions. Investigation of photoluminescent properties shows that the prepared mesoporous hybrid Eu(NTA)3L-COOH-PMO exhibited red emission, long lifetime and high absolute quantum efficiency Φ in solid-state and aqueous solution. More interestingly, it demonstrates greatly sensitive and selective detection of Cu2+ ions in aqueous medium among test ions. The sensing mechanism was also discussed in this report. Keywords: Europium ion, Fluorescent probe, Luminescent, Mesoporous materials, Organic-inorganic hybrid material, Terpyridine