The
construction of metal–organic cages (MOCs) with specific
structures and fluorescence sensing properties is of much importance
and challenging. Herein, a novel phenanthroline-based metal–organic
cage, [Cd3L3·6MeOH·6H2O]
(1), was synthesized by metal-directed assembly of the
ligand 3,3′-[(1E,1′E)-(1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-diyl)bis(ethene-2,1-diyl)]dibenzoic acid
(H2L) and CdI2 using a solvothermal
method. According to single-crystal X-ray analysis, cage 1 exhibits a rare trefoil-shaped structure. Meanwhile, the discrete
MOCs are further stacked into a 3D porous supramolecular structure
through abundant intermolecular C–H···O interactions.
Additionally, through exploration of fluorescence sensing on cations,
anions, and antibiotics in aqueous solution, the experimental results
indicate that cage 1 has excellent fluorescence sensing
abilities for Fe3+, Cr2O7
2–, and nitrofuran and nitroimidazole antibiotics. The sensing ability
of 1 remains unaltered for five cycles toward all analytes.
The above results suggested that cage 1 can be considered
a potential multiple sensor for the detection of Fe3+,
Cr2O7
2–, and some antibiotics.