Five Novel Silver-Based Coordination Polymers as Photoluminescent Sensing Platforms for the Detection of Nitrobenzene.

Abstract

Nitrobenzene (NB) is a highly toxic chemical and a cause for concern to human health and the environment. Hence, it is worthwhile to design new efficient and robust sensing platform for NB. In this study, we present three newly synthesized luminescent silver cluster-based coordination polymers, {[Ag10(StBu)6(CF3COO)4(hpbt)] (DMAc)2(CH3CN)2}n (hpbt = N,N,N',N'N",N"-hexa(pyridine-4-yl)benzene-1,3,5-triamine), [Ag12(StBu)6(CF3COO)6(bpva)3]n (bpva = 9,10-Bis(2-(pyridin-4-yl)vinyl)anthracene), and {[Ag12(StBu)6(CF3COO)6(bpb)(DMAc)2(H2O)2] (DMAc)2}n (bpb = 1,4-Bis(4-pyridyl)benzene) composed of Ag10, Ag12 and Ag12 cluster cores, respectively, connected by multidentate pyridine linkers. Besides, two new luminescent polymorphic silver(I)-based coordination polymers, [Ag(CF3COO)(dpa)]n (dpa = 9,10-di(4-pyridyl)anthracene) referred to as Agdpa (H) and Agdpa (R), where H and R denote the hexagon-like and rod-like crystal shapes, respectively, have been prepared. The coordination polymers exhibit highly sensitive luminescence quenching effect to NB, attributed to the π-π stacking interactions between the polymers and NB as well as the electron-withdrawing character of NB.