Highly sensitive chemosensing of trinitrotoluene with europium organic framework/gold nanoparticle composite

A nanocomposite of luminescent europium organic framework (EuOF) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has been investigated for photoluminescence (PL) quenching based highly sensitive detection of trinitrotoluene (TNT). The nanocomposite ‘EuOF/AuNP’ has been synthesized by initiating the growth of EuOF in the presence of AuNPs. The successful synthesis of the product has been verified with the help of electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. EuOF/AuNP nanocomposite offers reproducible and stable measurements of TNT. The linear dynamic range of detection is 5–800 ppb with the estimated detection limit of 18 ppb. The presence of other closely related aromatic compounds such as phenol, o-cresol, toluene, benzene, nitrobenzene and nitrophenol do not influence the sensing of TNT.