Focussed Microwave Assisted Synthesis of Multifunctional Eu doped Gd-MOF based Optochemical Sensor for the Sensing of pH and Heavy Metal Ions

Rare-earth Metal-organic frameworks (RE-MOFs) are known for their efficient photoluminescent properties and has been synthesized by various time consuming synthetic methodologies. In this work, we have addressed the synthesis of RE-MOFs via a novel Monomode microwave assisted route to yield MOFs with high crystallinity, less defects and better morphologies. The effect of doping concentration has also been addressed to optimize the percentage of europium required to attain better optical properties. The MOF which showed better optical properties was utilized as a multifunctional optochemical sensor for sensing heavy metal ion (Fe2+ and Pb2+ ions) and diverse pH ranges via visual and Pl based methods.