Amino-functionalized copper-based metal–organic frameworks for highly selective and sensitive detection of hypochlorite

In this work, we have developed amino-functionalized copper-based metal–organic frameworks (NH2-Cu-MOFs) for the detection of hypochlorite (ClO−). NH2-Cu-MOFs were synthesized using a one-pot hydrothermal method, and they exhibit strong fluorescence at 455 nm under the excitation of 330 nm. In the presence of ClO−, the fluorescence of NH2-Cu-MOFs was quenched due to the electron transfer between NH2-Cu-MOFs and ClO−. The NH2-Cu-MOFs exhibited 87.6% fluorescence quenching efficiency with 12.5 μM ClO− and the limit of detection is 0.036 μM. NH2-Cu-MOFs exhibited the advantages of high sensitivity, high selectivity, and low response reaction time for ClO− detection. This work developed a novel fluorescent probe for the detection of ClO− and the NH2-Cu-MOFs were successfully applied to analyse ClO− in real water samples.