A water-stable Tb(III)-based metal-organic gel (MOG) for detection of antibiotics and explosives

The rapid detection of antibiotics and organic explosives has gradually garnered great attention, due to concerns about sustainability and the environment. In this work, a luminescent Tb-based metal organic gel (MOG(Tb) gel) was prepared by Al-based MOG induced in situ replacement of Al³⁺ with Tb³⁺. Remarkably, the strong emission of the post-synthesized MOG(Tb) xerogel can be quenched efficiently by using trace amounts of sulfamethazine (SMZ) and sulfadiazine (SDZ) even in the presence of other competing antibiotics. Furthermore, the MOG(Tb) xerogel has shown its application as a chemosensor for the highly selective detection of nitroaromatics such as 2,4-dinitrophenol (2,4-DNT) and 2,6-dinitrophenol (2,6-DNT). To further verify the recyclability of MOG(Tb), detection experiments were carried out with recovered xerogel to give a satisfactory result.