Terbium-Functionalized Silver-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks for Efficient Antibacterial and Simultaneous Monitoring of Bacterial Spores

Effective sterilization and timely monitoring of bacterial spores are critical to addressing the safety concerns in the environment. Here, we design and synthesize two silver-based metal-organic frameworks Ag-tpt (Htpt=5-[4 (1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)]phenyl-2H-tetrazole) and Ag-tmpt (Htmpt=5-(4-((1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)methyl)phenyl)-1H-tetrazole) with excellent antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) and Escherichia coli (E. coli), respectively. The Ag-tpt with an increased degree of conjugation exhibits high stability and enhanced fluorescence performance. Furthermore, the ratiometric fluorescence probe Tb3+@Ag-tpt is fabricated for detecting dipicolinic acid (DPA) in the aqueous solution, showing quite a competitive detection range (0-65 mu M) and a low detection limit (LOD = 24.2 nM). In addition, the Tb3+@Ag-tpt presents a low LOD of bacterial spores (1.9 x 104 spores/mL) and also inherits the excellent antibacterial function against B. subtilis and E. coli, in which the antibacterial circle diameters reached 20.8 +/- 0.8 mm and 22.3 +/- 0.6 mm, respectively. Therefore, the silver -based composite materials bring broad prospects in the fields of reducing bacterial contamination and detecting bacterial spores in real time.