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Simple, sensitive, colorimetric detection of pyrophosphate via the analyte-triggered decomposition of metal–organic frameworks regulating their adaptive multi-color Tyndall effect

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Abstract

This paper describes initially the application of the Tyndall effect (TE) of metal–organic framework (MOF) materials as a colorimetric signaling strategy for the sensitive detection of pyrophosphate ion (PPi). The used MOF NH2-MIL-101(Fe) was prepared with Fe3+ ions and fluorescent ligands of 2-amino terephthalic acid (NH2-BDC). The fluorescence of NH2-BDC in MOF is quenched due to the ligand-to-metal charge transfer effect, while the NH2-MIL-101(Fe) suspension shows a strong TE. In the presence of PPi analyte, the MOFs will undergo decomposition because of the competitive binding of Fe3+ by PPi over NH2-BDC, resulting in a significant decrease in the TE signal and fluorescence restoration from the released ligands. The results demonstrate that the new method only requires a laser pointer pen (for TE creation) and a smartphone (for portable quantitative readout) to detect PPi in a linear concentration range of 1.25–800 μM, with a detection limit of ~210 nM (3σ) which is ~38 times lower than that obtained from traditional fluorescence with a spectrophotometer (linear concentration range, 50–800 µM; detection limit, 8.15 µM). Moreover, the acceptable recovery of PPi in several real samples (i.e., pond water, black tea, and human serum and urine) ranges from 97.66 to 119.15%.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Central Government-Guided Local Science and Technology Development Project (No. GuikeZY20198006), the Guangxi Scholarship Fund of Guangxi Education Department (No. Guijiaoren-2019-5), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21874032 and 21765007), and the Guangxi Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (No. 2018GXNSFFA281002).

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  1. Xueer Huang and Yongkang Yan contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical and Magnetochemical Function Materials, College of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Guilin University of Technology, 12 Jiangan Road, Guilin, 541004, People’s Republic of China

    Xueer Huang, Yongkang Yan, Lili Yuan, Yiyue Tang, Wenli Zhu, Yali Yuan, Jinfang Nie & Yun Zhang

  2. Institute of Rheumatology and Immunology, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, 234 Fujiang Road, Nanchong, 637000, People’s Republic of China

    Lang Zhang

  3. Translational Medicine Research Center, North Sichuan Medical College, 234 Fujiang Road, Nanchong, 637000, People’s Republic of China

    Xinqing Jiang

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Huang, X., Yan, Y., Zhang, L. et al. Simple, sensitive, colorimetric detection of pyrophosphate via the analyte-triggered decomposition of metal–organic frameworks regulating their adaptive multi-color Tyndall effect. Anal Bioanal Chem 416, 1821–1832 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-024-05200-4

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