Amino-decorated lanthanide( iii ) organic extended frameworks for multi-color luminescence and fluorescence sensing

Solvothermal reactions of LnCl 3 ·6H 2 O (Ln = Eu, Tb, Sm and Dy) with 2-aminoterephthalic acid obtain four isostructural lanthanide( iii )–organic frameworks. The structure has the topology of a gadolinium 2-aminoterephthalic acid (MOF-LIC-1). The as-obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, TGA and luminescence spectroscopy. They all belong to the luminescence materials system with broad band excitation, which could extend to the visible-light region. The selected ligand could effectively sensitize the luminescence of Eu 3+ , Tb 3+ and Sm 3+ , particularly the Eu 3+ ions; thus, leading to the characteristic luminescence of Ln 3+ . More significantly, the white-light emission may be realized by a single-component Sm( iii ) framework. Furthermore, Eu-MOF was selected as a representative sample to examine the potential of the material for the sensing of metal ions. It showed highly selective and sensitive luminescence sensing for Al 3+ ions. In addition, the luminescence color change can be easily distinguished with the naked eye under UV-light irradiation.