A bifunctional luminescent europium–organic framework for highly selective sensing of nitrobenzene and 4-aminophenol

A microporous hexanuclear europium cluster based MOF, (DMA)2[Eu6(μ3-OH)8(BPDC)6(H2O)6]n·(solv)x (DMA = dimethylamine cation and H2BPDC = [1,1′-biphenyl]-4,4′-dicarboxylic acid), can be applied as a highly selective and sensitive bifunctional luminescence sensor to detect nitrobenzene and 4-aminophenol through an energy competition mechanism. More interestingly, this MOF can detect nitrobenzene and 4-aminophenol with low detection limits of 5–70 ppm and 5–110 ppm, respectively.