Ultrasensitive and Selective Detection of Uranium by a Luminescent Terbium–Organic Framework

Detection
and remediation of radioactive components have become
the focus of worldwide research interest due to the ever-increasing
generation of nuclear waste and the concerns on nuclear accidents.
Among the numerous radionuclides, uranium and its isotopes receive
the most attention because of their high proportion in nuclear waste
and long half-life. Herein, a highly luminescent terbium–organic
framework, formulated as [Tb4(C29O8H17)2(NO3)4(DMF)4(H2O)4]·4H2O·8.5DMF
(YTU-100), with exceptional sensitivity and selectivity
toward uranium was successfully prepared. The material exhibits fast
adsorption kinetics and moderate sorption capacity. Interestingly,
the luminescence intensity variation highly correlates to the amount
of adsorbed uranium, which results in a quantitative, accurate, and
selective uranium detection manner. The detection limits in deionized
water and tap water were determined to be 1.07 and 0.75 ppb, respectively,
which are lower than the US Environmental Protection Agency standard
of the maximum contamination of uranium in drinking water. YTU-100 offers an alternative approach for building multifunctional MOFs
used for simultaneous detection and removal of uranium from aqueous
solutions.

放射性成分的探测与修复因核废料产生量的持续增加及核事故的担忧而成为全球研究关注的焦点。在众多放射性同位素中，铀及其同位素因其在高放射性废料中的高比例和长半衰期而备受瞩目。本研究中，一种具有高发光性的钆-有机框架[Tb4(C29O8H17)2(NO3)4(DMF)4(H2O)4]·4H2O·8.5DMF (YTU-100)成功制备，该材料对铀具有卓越的灵敏性和选择性。该材料表现出快速的吸附动力学和适中的吸附容量。值得注意的是，发光强度的变化与吸附铀的量高度相关，从而实现了定量、准确且具有选择性的铀检测。在去离子水和自来水中的检测限分别为1.07和0.75 ppb，均低于美国环境保护署规定的饮用水中铀的最大污染标准。YTU-100为构建用于同时检测和去除水溶液中铀的多功能MOFs提供了一种替代方案。