Lanthanide
(such as Tb and Eu) metal–organic frameworks
(MOFs) have been widely used in fluorescent probes because of their
multiple coordination modes and brilliant fluorescence characteristic.
Many lanthanide MOFs were applied in detecting metal ions, inorganic
anions, and small molecules. However, it’s rarely reported
that Ln-MOF was devoted to detecting malachite green (MG) and uric
acid (UA). We prepared a europium-based metal–organic framework
(Eu-TDA) (TDA = 2,5-thiophenedicarboxylic acid group). Luminescence
studies demonstrated that Eu-TDA can rapidly detect MG and UA with
excellent selectivity and sensitivity, where individual quenching
efficiency K
sv (MG: 5.8 × 105 M–1; UA: 4.15 × 104 M–1) and detection limit (MG: 0.0221 μM; UA: 0.689
μM) were regarded as the excellent MOF sensors for detecting
MG and UA. The quenching of Eu-TDA’s fluorescence emission
by MG and UA was likely due to the spectral overlap, energy transfer,
and competition. Among 11 metal cations and 14 anions, Eu-TDA can
quickly and effectively recognize MG and UA with highly selective
and sensitive properties. Our method possesses potential application
in detecting UA in human blood and MG in the fishpond.