Unraveling The Highly Selective Nature Of Silver-Based Metal Organic Complexes For The Detection Of Metal Ions: Synergistic Effect Of Dicarboxylic Acid Linkers

Abstract

Photoluminescence metal-organic complexes (PLMOCs) have become attractive material for highly selective metal ion detection because of their unique physical and chemical properties. However, the fundamental understanding of characteristics of PLMOCs and metal ions sensing is still lacking. We report the synthesis of a series of Ag(bpy)(DA) PLMOCs (DA = dicarboxylic acids) and unravel key factors of the Ag-based PLMOCs regarding sensitivity in metal ion detection. The DA linkers with the strong electron-donating groups (-NH2 and -OH) resulted in the red-shift in PL emission of the Ag-based PLMOCs. The Ag(bpy)(DA) displayed the emissive peaks in the UV region show higher sensitivity for Fe3+, compared to the Ag-based PLMOCs with the emissive peaks located in the Vis region. Moreover, the Ag(bpy)(DA) comprised of DA linkers with an amine group could exhibit sensitive detection toward Pb2+ .