Terbium-based metal-organic frameworks: highly selective and fast respond sensor for styrene detection and construction of molecular logic gate

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are extremely harmful to the human body and environment, thus it is greatly meaningful and urgent to detect VOCs. In this work, terbium-based metal-organic frameworks (Tb-MOFs) have been prepared successfully via a facile and efficient route. These well-constructed Tb-MOFs architectures exhibit characteristic green emission of Tb³⁺ ion upon excitation of UV light. It is noteworthy that the Tb-MOFs can act as a convenient and efficient luminescent sensor for VOCs. Especially, the Tb-MOFs displayed high selectivity and superior sensitivity towards the sensing of styrene solution and vapor through fluorescence quenching mechanism. The Tb-MOFs can realize fast detection for styrene vapor with a response time of 30 s. The mechanism of fluorescence quenching of Tb-MOFs induced by styrene was also discussed. More importantly, we have designed a logic gate operation with the combination of the sensor for the intelligent detection of styrene. This developed type of lanthanide luminescent metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) based on the combination of fluorescence sensor and logic gate has a great application prospect in the detection of VOCs in daily life.