LAUSR

Abstract Developing novel lanthanide complexes to rapidly and reliably sensing Cu2+ ions in pure water is highly challenging. Here, a series long luminescence lifetime luminescent Eu-complex polyurethane foams (Eu-PUFs) porous material by simple one-step co-polycondensation reaction has been successfully assembled. The photoluminescence (PL) results indicated that the pure red emission from Eu3+ ions is selectively quenched upon addition of Cu2+ ions, and barely any interference by other metal ions in pure water, thus making Eu-PUFs as a potential Cu2+ ions sensing material. The original luminescent intensity of Eu3+ ions located 617 nm can be recovered about 84% by washing of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) there times, indicating the sensing ability of Eu-PUFs is highly reversible. Due to the probe molecules Eu (TTA)3 • Phen-NH2 was bonded into Eu-PUFs through covalent bond linker, so the Eu-PUFs sensors can be utilized to detection of Cu2+ ions in pure water multiple times (more than 20 times) without much effect on the sensitivity, and the limitation of detection (LOD) for Cu2+ in pure water is as low as 0.28 μM. All above mentioned results revealed these Eu-PUFs are excellent and potential Cu2+ ions sensing material in pure water and will be widely used in analytical and biological application fields.