Luminescent Lanthanide Complex Sensor for Acac and Cd2+

In this work, phenylmalonic acid (H(2)pmal) and phenanthroline (phen) are selected to react with Ln(NO3)(3)center dot 6H(2)O (Ln = Tb, Eu) to form two lanthanide coordination complex [Ln(2)(PAA)(4)(phen)(2)(NO3)(2)] (Ln = Tb, Tb complex; Eu, Eu complex), PAA = deprotonated phenylacetic acid, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline). Two lanthanide complexes are stable in neutral, acid (pH = 4) and base (pH = 10) water solutions. Especially, Tb complex is a bifunctional sensor for acac and Cd2+, through luminescence turn on and turn off, respectively. Importantly, the limit of detections (LODs) for acac and Cd2+ are 90 nm and 0.5 mu m, respectively. Furthermore, the sensing mechanisms are discussed in detail.

Automated summary

In this work, two stable lanthanide coordination complexes were successfully synthesized by reacting phenylmalonic acid and phenanthroline with Ln(NO3)(Ln = Tb, Eu). The Tb complex was found to be a bifunctional sensor for acac and Cd2+, with low detection limits at different pH values.