A robust 4,8-connected Tb-based metal-organic framework (Tb-MOF) with paddle wheel-shaped {Tb 2 (COO) 4 } subunits extended by C 3 -symmetric 3,3Ј,3ЈЈ-[1,3,5-benzenetriyltris(carbonylimino)]trisbenzoate connector was hydrothermally synthesized, showing highly environmental stability, good dispersion and intense green emission in water system. Resulting critically from the well suppressed absorption towards the excitation energy, the Tb-MOF exhibits rapid and efficient 23 fluorescent response towards nitroimidazole antibiotics with strong quenching constants and low detection limits of 1.59 ϫ 10 4 m -1 and 2.4 μM for metronidazole as well as 1.62 ϫ 10 4 m -1 and 2.9 μM for dimetridazole. Moreover, the sensitive and selective identification of the Tb-MOF has strong anti-interference and excellent regeneration ability, which endows the promising applications of the Tb-MOF as fluorescent sensing materials.