Regulatable Detection of Antibiotics Based on a Near-IR-Luminescent Tubelike Zn(II)-Yb(III) Nanocluster.

A tubelike Zn(II)-Yb(III) cluster, [Zn 6 Yb 5 L 5 (HL)(NO 3 ) 4 (DMF) 6 (EtOH) 4 (H 2 O) 4 ] ( 1 ; DMF = N , N -dimethylformamide and EtOH = ethanol; molecular size 1.5 × 1.8 × 2.9 nm), was synthesized from a new long-chain Schiff base ligand. 1 exhibits a regulatable near-IR-luminescent response to nitrofuran antibiotics (NFAs) and fluoroquinolones with high sensitivity, which is not influenced by other antibiotics. The quenching constants of NFAs and fluoroquinolones range from 0.55 × 10 4 to 8.8 × 10 4 M -1 , and the detection limits of 1 to them are from 4.2 × 10 -4 to 2.6 × 10 -5 M. It also shows a luminescent response to real antibiotic drugs containing NFAs and fluoroquinolones.