Polypod Carboxylic Acid-Rare Earth Complex with High Cyclic Stability for Nitrobenzene Compound Detection

The 5’,5’’-bis(4-carboxyphenyl)-[1,1’:3’,1’’:3’’,1’’’-quaterphenyl]-4,4’’’-dicarboxylic (H₄L1) ligand has a large conjugated rigid planar structure and good absorption of ultraviolet radiation, which can provide effective “antenna effect”. However, rare earth complexes using H₄L1 as the sole ligand have not been reported. In this paper, rare earth Eu was combined with H₄L1 ligand to produce organic rare earth composite L1-Eu by solvothermal synthesis method. It was found through fluorescence spectroscopy that the emission of L1-Eu complex has a linear response to nitrobenzene compounds. The L1-Eu composite material has a low detection limit for nitrobenzene compounds, with detection limits of 0.910, 8.401, 24.510, and 8.171 µM for nitrobenzene, o-nitrophenol, m-nitrophenol, and p-nitrophenol, respectively. Further more the L1-Eu complex can sensitively respond to nitrobenzene compounds while resisting interference from common metal ions and organic solvents. In particular, L1-Eu composite material has good stability and recyclability. Therefore, L1-Eu composite material can serve as a fluorescent probe for specific detection of nitrobenzene compounds. We believe that the L1-Eu complex provides a new method for fluorescence detection of nitrobenzene compounds.