Continuous singlet oxygen generation for persistent chemiluminescence in Cu-MOFs-based catalytic system

Due to the ultra-weak and instantaneous chemiluminescence (CL) of luminol-H2O2 system, developing new catalysts to dramatically enhance and produce persistent CL emission is crucial. In this study, the Cu-metal-organic frameworks (Cu-MOFs) with flower morphology converted from Cu-based metal-organic gels (Cu-MOGs) could catalyze luminol-H2O2 system, exhibiting persistent CL. The possible mechanism of this persistent emission of luminol was attributed to the gradual generation of OH, O-2(center dot-) and O-1(2) in Cu-MOFs-catalyzed luminol-H2O2 system. In addition, OH and O-2(center dot-) were continuously recombined into singlet oxygen on the surface of Cu-MOFs which further prolonged the duration time of the CL leading to the persistent emission, due to the longer lifetime of O-1(2) compared to OH and O-2(center dot-). Furthermore, based on the high-intensity emission of Cu-MOFs-catalyzed luminol-H2O2 system, the strategy for sensitive response to quercetin was established with good linearity within the range of 0.05-1.2 mu M and a detection limit of 49.7 nM. This study provides a new idea for developing persistent CL catalysts.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the development of Cu-metal-organic frameworks as catalysts for persistent chemiluminescence in the luminol-H2O2 system. The mechanism involves the gradual generation of OH, O-2(center dot-), and O-1(2) leading to prolonged emission. The research provides insights for the development of new persistent CL catalysts.