The sensing performances of
1 for Cr
Ⅵ and Fe
Ⅲ ions are further assessed by the fluorescence titration experiments. As shown in
Fig. 3, the fluorescence intensity of the suspension decreases sharply and is fully quenched when the concentration of CrO
42− reaches 31.3 ppm. The quenching trend of Cr
2O
72− is akin to the case of CrO
42− and the emission is entirely dimmed when the Cr
2O
72− concentration increases to 194 ppm. Slightly differing from Cr
Ⅵ anions, the fluorescence signal of the suspension containing Fe
3+ moderately decreases in the early stage of the titration and entirely turns off until the Fe
3+ concentration is above 117 ppm. We also analyze the fluorescence quenching behavior of
1 in terms of the Stern-Volmer (S-V) equation:
I0/
I =
Ksv[Q]+1. Herein,
I0 and
I refer to the fluorescence intensity of the suspension before and after the addition of the analyte, [Q] is the molar concentration of the analyte, and
Ksv denotes the quenching constant [
61]. As shown in Fig. S13 (Supporting information), all the S-V curves for CrO
42−, Cr
2O
72− and Fe
3+ show a linear relationship in the low concentration range, with the estimated
Ksv values being 1.48 × 10
4 (
R2 = 0.9925), 2.69 × 10
4 (
R2 = 0.9920), and 3.50 × 10
3 L/mol (
R2 = 0.9845), respectively, higher than many reported MOF-based sensors [
62-
64]. According to the formula of 3
σ/
Ksv (
σ: standard error), the detection limits for CrO
42−, Cr
2O
72− and Fe
3+ are 68.18, 69.85 and 138.8 ppm, respectively, thus indicating that
1 can achieve the trace amount recognition of those heavy metal ions. In addition to high selectivity and sensitivity,
anti-interference ability and recyclability are also important for practical application of sensors. For
1, it is observed that the fluorescence intensity of the suspension does not significantly alter in the presence of other competing ions and reduces only after the addition of CrO
42−, Cr
2O
72− and Fe
3+ ions (Fig. S14 in Supporting information). As for its recyclability, we testify that the QP of
1 can keep almost unchanged during four consecutive sensing cycles (Fig. S15 in Supporting information). These testaments strongly suggest
1 to be a qualified fluorescent sensor toward CrO
42−, Cr
2O
72− and Fe
3+ ions. Since now, several luminescent MOFs have been announced for detecting Cr
Ⅵ and Fe
Ⅲ ions, but many of them are not applicable for the sensing in the aqueous environment, due to their intrinsically weak stability [
2,
3,
14,
65].