Achiral Sm(III)-Based Metal-Organic Framework as a Luminescence Sensor for Enantiodiscrimination of Quinine and Quinidine.

The effective discrimination and determination of the chiral antimalarial drugs quinine (QN) and quinidine (QD) are extremely important for human health. Herein, a 2D achiral Sm-based metal-organic framework (IMU-MOF = [Sm(tpba)(L)], where Htpba = 4-(2,2':6″,2'-terpyridin)-4'-ylbenzioc acid and HL = 2,2'-biquinoline-4,4'-dicarboxylic acid) was successfully prepared by the solvothermal method. More importantly, IMU-MOF was designed as an ultrasensitive fluorescent probe for the identification of chiral enantiomer drugs. The limits of detection for QN and QD are 4.24 × 10 and 7.54 × 10 M, respectively. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the stronger hydrogen-bonding interactions between IMU-MOF and quinine furnish a more efficient energy transfer to the ligands in the sensing process, resulting in a significant fluorescence enhancement of IMU-MOF.