Specific sensing of antibiotics with metal-organic frameworks based dual sensor system

The illegal usage of antibiotics as veterinary drugs is an increasing threat for human health. The specific sensing of antibiotics with different toxicity levels is of high challenge, and mainly relies on expensive, time-consuming, and complex instruments. To realize specific sensing by rapid and handy optical sensors, a metal-organic framework (MOF) based dual sensor system is herein developed using two MOF materials BUT-128 and BUT-129 with high sensing selectivity and sensitivity. BUT-128 and BUT-129 exhibit the lowest limit of detection (LOD) towards chloramphenicol and furazolidone among reported MOF sensors. The corresponding dual sensor system with enriched signal readouts realized specific sensing of the strictly forbidden antibiotics (chloramphenicol and nitrofurans) from other regulated veterinary drugs including thiamphenicol, a structural analog of chloramphenicol. Besides, the strategy of this work is expected to flourish the development of optical sensors with high specificity for environment and food safety purposes.