For
the preference in nuclear energy, one of the high-level liquid
waste materials in the form of pertechnetate anion (TcO4
–) has become an environmental hazard due to its
mobility into groundwater and soil. For its sequestration, numerous
efforts have been reported in recent years. However, its selective
sensing, even using its nonradioactive surrogate oxidizing perrhenate
ion (ReO4
–), in aqueous media is very
limited. To develop novel materials for such a purpose, we have designed
an amino acid-functionalized bent dicarboxylic acid, 4-(((4-((carboxymethyl)carbamoyl)phenyl)amino)methyl)benzoic
acid (H2hipamifba), for the strategic room-temperature
synthesis of two isostructural and highly luminescent two-dimensional
(2D) metal–organic coordination networks (MOCNs), {[Cu(hipamifba)(4,4′-azbpy)]·2CH3OH·2H2O}
n
(1) and {[Zn(hipamifba)(4,4′-azbpy)]·2CH3OH·2H2O}
n
(2), where 4,4′-azobipyridine (4,4′-azbpy) as a pillar
linker imparts luminescent properties in the architectures. The single-crystal
X-ray structural analysis demonstrates that 1 and 2 have pillared-bilayer 2D networks with the sq1/Shubnikov
tetragonal plane net topology. These multiresponsive luminescent materials
were gainfully employed for the selective sensing of ReO4
– in water with a detection limit of 3.4 and 5.4 ppm for 1 and 2, respectively. It is noteworthy to point out that these
are the first neutral sensors for such study as the only other two
sensors reported in the literature are cationic in nature. Their suitability
(selectivity, stability, and recyclability) as excellent water-stable
sensors was established through the competitive analyte test and a
comparison of pristine and spent samples by powder X-ray diffraction
(PXRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Further, the mechanism
of selective detection is explained by the time-resolved studies and
density functional theory (DFT) calculations.