A stable Zn-coordination polymer for the quantitative and selective detection of biomarker phenylglyoxylic acid in urine

Abstract

Developing stable sensing materials for the selective detection of phenylglyoxylic acid (PGA) in biological samples is highly important for the early diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. In this work, a Zn(II)-based coordination polymer (CP), {[Zn(L)(bibp)]·bibp·2H₂O}_n (1) (H₂L = 2,6-di(4-carboxylphenyl)-4-(4-(triazol-1-ylphenyl))pyridine and bibp = 4,4′-bis(imidazolyl)biphenyl), with good chemical and thermal stabilities was solvothermally synthesized. It showed an excellent fluorescence turn-off response capability for the detection of the styrene biomarker PGA with outstanding sensitivity, selectivity, recoverability and anti-interference ability. Moreover, experimental and DFT calculations suggested that the mechanism of fluorescence quenching could be attributed to the synergistic effect of the internal filter effect (IFE) and photo-induced electron transfer (PET) process between the complex and PGA.