The
detection and removal of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) are extremely
important because of the growing levels of pollution in the environment
and water sources. In this paper, a multifunctional material based
on Kadsura-shaped fluorescent covalent–organic framework (COF)
nanostructures was developed and applied to the simultaneous sensitive
detection and effective removal of TNP for the first time. Kadsura-shaped
fluorescent COFs with stable nanostructures were obtained by a facile
one-step synthesis strategy at normal temperature. It should be noted
that TNP could prominently and rapidly quench the fluorescence of
Kadsura-shaped COFs by the inner filter effect (IFE), with a detection
limit of 1.7 nM and a linear range of 5.0 × 10–3–2.0 × 102 μM. The established method
could be successfully employed for the analysis of TNP in a natural
water environment. Moreover, a filter-paper-sensing element for the
visual detection of TNP was also fabricated, which provided an effective
and efficient visualization platform for TNP detection. Meanwhile,
as an adsorbent, Kadsura-shaped COFs could effectively adsorb and
remove TNP in the samples. The maximum saturated adsorption capacity
of Kadsura-shaped COFs was 656 mg/g, which was the maximum reported
thus far. The proposed approach could not only achieve fluorescence
detection and visual analysis of TNP but also remove TNP in environmental
samples, which provided a modest contribution to environmental protection.