Ratio fluorescence sensor based on CD/Cu-MOFs for detection of Hg2+

Trace detection of toxic heavy metals is a very important and difficult problem in several areas: convenience, sen-sitivity, and reliability. Herein, we develop an innovative fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based ratio fluorescence sensor for the detection of heavy metal mercury ion (Hg2+). The sensing platform is composed of coumarin derivatives (CDs) and a copper metal-organic framework (Cu-MOF) named CD/Cu-MOF. The con-structed CD/Cu-MOFs ratio fluorescence sensor exhibits dual emission peaks at 430 and 505 nm under the single excitation wavelength of 330 nm. With the addition of Hg2+, the fluorescence intensity of the system at 430 nm gradually increased, and the fluorescence intensity at 505 nm remained stable, resulting in a change in the fluores-cence ratio. There is a good logarithmic relationship between the Hg2+ concentration in the range from 2 x 10-8 to 0.001 nM and the ratio of the fluorescence emission intensity of the system (F430/F505) (R2 = 0.9901), and its calculated detection limit is 3.76 x 10-9 nM. In addition, the CD/Cu-MOFs ratio fluorescence sensor has achieved a good recovery rate of standard addition in the actual food sample recovery experiment, which provides an effective method for the detection of Hg2+ in food samples. (c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.473425