LMOF serve as food preservative nanosensor for sensitive detection of nitrite in meat products

Nitrite (NO2−) is widely present in meat products as a vital food preservative, while excessive nitrite is a serious carcinogen to human beings, developing a sensitive and selective nitrite detection method is of great significance for food safety. Herein, a novel luminescent metal organic framework (LMOF) (Rh6G@MOF-5) is prepared through a facile one-pot synthesis as a fluorescent turn-off sensor for NO2− determination. Upon exposure to NO2−, significant fluorescence intensity decreases linearly along with NO2−concentration in the range of 0–200 μmol/L and the detection limit is estimated to be 0.2 μmol/L. The developed nanocomposite has been shown to be an ultrasensitive and selective nanoprobe for detecting NO2− in meat products, with recoveries ranging from 96.1% to 103.2% with the RSDs less than 4%. Rh6G@MOF-5 nanoprobe offers insight into the fabrication of MOF-based sensors with low cost and convenient operation in analyte detection field.