Curcumin immobilized metal organic framework based fluorescent nanoprobe for selective sensing and bioimaging of Fe(II)

Curcumin immobilized zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (Cmim@ZIF-8) based probe has been reported in order to detect Fe(II) ions in aqueous medium. The Cmim@ZIF-8 nanoprobe was synthesized by a one pot process and characterized by various techniques such as X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscope and Brunauer−Emmett−Teller surface area measurement. The prepared material (Cmim@ZIF-8) was tested against various monovalent and divalent metal ions and found to be selective for detection of Fe(II). Cmim@ZIF-8 exhibit turn off fluorescence intensity with Fe(II) ions due to displacement of Curcumin indicator from ZIF-8 surface with a detection limit of 7.64 μM. Furthermore, Cmim@ZIF-8 was successfully utilised to detect Fe(II) in live HepG2 cells through fluorescence confocal imaging.