A luminescent lanthanide coordination polymer based on energy transfer from metal to metal for hydrogen peroxide detection.

Abstract A bimetal lanthanide coordination polymer nanoparticle (ATP-Ce/Tb-Tris CPNs) with good biocompatibility was synthesized in Tris–HCl buffer using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules as the bridge ligands. The large absorption cross section and suitable emission energy of Ce 3+ matching to the adsorption energy of Tb 3+ ( 4 f n ) results in the efficient energy transfer from Ce 3+ to Tb 3+ , thus the synthesized ATP-Ce/Tb-Tris CPNs exhibit the characteristic green emission of Tb 3+ . Such energy transfer from metal to metal in fluorescent lanthanide coordination polymer nanoparticles (Ln-CPNs) has been demonstrated. It is found that the oxidation of Ce 3+ in ATP-Ce/Tb-Tris CNPs to Ce 4+ would interrupt the energy transfer from Ce 3+ to Tb 3+ , leading to fluorescence quenching of Tb 3+ . On the basis of this quenching mechanism, ATP-Ce/Tb-Tris CPNs has been successfully used to detect reactive oxygen H 2 O 2 with detection limit as low as 2 nM. If glucose oxidase is present in the system, glucose can be determined using the ATP-Ce/Tb-Tris CNPs nanosensor.