A novel 3D Zn-coordination polymer based on a multiresponsive fluorescent sensor demonstrating outstanding sensitivities and selectivities for the efficient detection of multiple analytes.

A novel and unusual 3D luminescent coordination polymer (CP) [Zn(3-bpah)(bpta)(HO)]·3HO (1), where 3-bpah denotes ,'-bis(3-pyridinecarboxamide)-1,2-cyclohexane and Hbpta denotes 2,2',4,4'-biphenyltetracarboxylic acid, was successfully synthesized hydrothermal methods from Zn(II) ions and 3-bpah and bpta ligands. The structure of this CP was investigated powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis along with single crystal X-ray diffraction. Notably, 1 exhibits remarkable fluorescence behavior and stability over a wide pH range and in various pure organic solvents. More importantly, 1 can become an outstanding candidate for the selective and sensitive sensing of Fe, Mg, CrO, MnO, nitrobenzene (NB) and nitromethane (NM), at an extremely low detection limit. The changes in the fluorescence intensity exhibited by these six analytes in the presence of 1 over a wide pH range indicate that this polymer can be an excellent luminescent sensor. To the best of our knowledge, 1 is a rare example of a CP-based multiresponsive fluorescent sensor for metal cations, anions, and toxic organic solvents.