Assembly of a pyrene-based zinc(II)-organic framework with fluorescence property for selective sensing of nitroaromatic compounds

In this work, a zinc(II)-based metal-organic framework, namely [Zn2(TBAPy)(H2O)(DMF)]center dot 4DMF center dot 2H2O (JOU34) (TBAPy = 1,3,6,8-tetrakis (p-benzoic acid) pyrene; DMF = N,N'-Dimethylformamide), has been solvothermally synthesized and characterized. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction shows that JOU-34 displays threedimensional microporous framework with rare topology. Due to the introduction of pyrene groups, JOU-34 shows strong fluorescent emission cantered at about 470 nm. Furthermore, it shows a good fluorescence sensing performance toward nitroaromatic compounds, especially nitrobenzene (NB). Although the NB concentration was only 8.33 x 10-4 M, the quenching efficiency can reach 89 %. Further studies show that the quenching effect of JOU-34 in the presence of nitroaromatics may be attributed to the fluorescence resonant energy transfer and electron transfer between nitroaromatics and JOU-34. These results indicate that JOU-34 can be applied as a functional material for nitroaromatics detection.