A multifunctional Tb-porphyrin aerogel for ratiometric fluorescent sensing of Cu(II) and photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B

Synthesis of Ln-porphyrin aerogels with abundant porosity and novel photophysical properties for luminescent sensing and photocatalysis should have significant importance. In this paper, a multifunctional Tb-porphyrin aerogel was synthesized using agarose as a building block for ratiometric fluorescent Cu(II) sensing and photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B. Specially, Tb-porphyrin particles were introduced into agarose aerogel to give the Tb-porphyrin aerogel with porous structure. Tb-porphyrin aerogel shows an excellent sensing performance toward Cu(II) resulting from the self-referencing mechanism and the porous structure. The fluorescent response exhibits a linear range from 1 to 200 μM ( R 2 = 0.990), and the limit of detection is 50 nM (S/N = 3). Such a ratiometric fluorescent sensor shows excellent long-term stability and selectivity. Furthermore, the Tb-porphyrin aerogel was used for photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B, exhibiting a more efficient activity compared with the Tb-porphyrin particle. This research should open up a new avenue to develop Ln-porphyrin aerogel-based material for ratiometric fluorescent sensing and photocatalysis.