Selective and Sensitive Recognition of Specific Types of Toxic Organic Pollutants with a Chemically Stable Highly Luminescent Porous Organic Polymer (POP)

Abstract

The excessive use of anthropogenic wastes, such as emerging antibiotics and pesticides, has led to serious water pollution. Therefore, selective identification of those specific types of pollutants in wastewater is of significance owing to their direct detrimental impact upon human health. For practical requirements, a potential sensory material is highly desirable for detection of antibiotics and pesticides in water. As an advanced class of porous materials, porous organic polymers (POPs) are considered a potential candidate for the detection of micropollutants. Herein, we investigated the selective fluorescence quenching mechanism of a highly luminescent, electronically rich chemically stable POP (IP POP -1) toward detection of antibiotics and pesticides in an aqueous medium. IP POP -1 exhibited a selective strong quenching response in the presence of electron-deficient antibiotics (such as nitrofurantoin [NFT] and nitrofurazone [NFZ]) and pesticides like chloropyriphos (CHPS) and nitrofen, among others. IP POP -1 was found to be highly sensitive to NFT and NFZ at trace levels, and the detection limits were found as 0.046 and 0.045 mM, respectively. On the other hand, in the case of the pesticides, CHPS and nitrofen, the detection limits were 0.470 and 0.471 mM, respectively. After the detection test, IP POP -1 could be regenerated for further use without any apparent loss of function. Moreover, detailed mechanism of the detection ability of IP POP -1 were elucidated with the help of a time-resolved photoluminescence lifetime decay study and the density functional theory (DFT). All of these studies suggested that both the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and photoinduced electron transfer (PET) processes are responsible behind such selective emission quenching. Furthermore, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) experiment was carried out in addition to demonstrate IP POP -1 being able to detect electron-deficient antibiotics in trace amounts in simulated hospital wastewater. Finally, IP POP -1-based mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) were fabricated and employed to mimic real-time antibiotic detection in water.

Porous organic polymers (POPs) for environmental remediation

“…With this aim, in a recent report, our group explored the potential of POPs towards detection of antibiotics and pesticides, which are emerging toxic pollutants in water. 194 The polymer (IPpop-1) was synthesized by reacting TFPT and BPDO monomers at high temperature in DMAc solvent catalyzed by K 2 CO 3 (Fig. 8h).…”

Designing Fluorescent Covalent Organic Frameworks by Controlling Layer Spacing, Size of Aromatic Linker and Side Chains for Detection of Nitrofurazone

“…When the signal-to-noise ratio was 3, the detection limit was 0.11 µm (0.022 µg mL −1 ). Compared with other sensors for the detection of NF, [48][49][50][51][52] the NF sensor based on the COF DHA-TAPB has a wider linear range and a lower detection limit (Table S1, Supporting Information). The COF DHA-TAPB could be reused for at least five cycles (Figure S7, Supporting Information).…”

Post engineering of a chemically stable MOF for selective and sensitive sensing of nitric oxide

“…Such a phenomenon broadly restricts the maximum probe–analyte interactions which further creates less sensitivity and low detection ability as well as inaccuracy in the sensing result. 9,10,52 Therefore, it is particularly important to develop processable forms of LMOFs for the practical sensing application. In this regard, fabrication of LMOF-based membranes or films, or more especially mixed-matrix-membranes (MMMs), is recently considered as a promising strategy for various potential applications.…”

“…8,9 Moreover, the optimal fluorescence probe should show a notable variation in fluorescence intensity along with high selectivity even in the presence of interfering analytes. 10 Owing to these advantages, numerous small organic molecule and metal based fluorescent probes have been developed and further utilized for the detection of various environmentally relevant toxic species. Importantly, to our particular interest, ortho-diamine based fluorescent probes and metal based complexes are widely used for NO sensing.…”