Two cadmium(ii) coordination polymers as luminescent sensors for the detection of nitrofuran/nitroimidazole antibiotics

Two Cd(ii) coordination polymers (CPs) were assembled from the mixed ligand strategy of pi-conjugated aromatic polycarboxylates and bis(imidazole) linkers, with the structures being a 2-fold interpenetrating 3D bbf net for 1 and a 2D hxl sheet for 2. The fluorescence measurements revealed that both Cd(ii) CPs were promising luminescent sensors for the detection of nitrofuran/nitroimidazole antibiotics (ABXs) with low detection limits. Besides, the luminescence quenching of the two Cd(ii) CPs toward ABXs was investigated by using DFT calculations and spectral overlap experiments.