This project belongs to Analytical Chemistry. Analytical Chemistry plays important roles in scientific research, human health and public security. In this project, several kinds of advanced materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been explored to develop new analytical methodologies for sensitive and selective determination of trace pollutants and biomolecules. This project has provided new strategies and methodologies for improving analytical sensitivity and selectivity, and greatly promoted the development of analytical chemistry and its crosstalk with materials sciences. The key scientific innovations include:

(1)The application of MOFs to capillary gas chromatography and sample pretreatment has been proposed. In situ hydrothermal growth of thin MOF films on etched stainless steel wire has been developed for the first application of MOFs in solid-phase microextraction while the first MOF-coated capillary column has been fabricated for high-resolution gas chromatography. The systematical investigations into MOFs-based solid-phase extraction and microextraction, and chromatographic stationary phases have greatly improved the sensitivity and selectivity of complex sample analysis. These studies were highlighted in Chemistry World, invited to be summarized in Accounts of Chemical Research, and followed-up by other research groups.

(2)Novel room-temperature phosphorescence methodology based on Mn-doped-ZnS quantum dots has been developed for trace analysis to avoid the interferences from autofluorescence or scattering light of biological matrixes, which was considered as “a pioneer work” in the field by Prof. Sanz-Medel. Persistent luminescent nanoparticles have been functionalized for external-illumination-free detection to achieve matrix background-free optosensing and bioimaging. These studies have triggered many follow-up studies.

(3)Novel strategies have been developed for preparing chiral MIPs-based monolithic column, the surface imprinted Mn-QDs and silica microsphere and MIPs-based sensor arrays. The prepared novel chiral MIPs-based materials have significantly improved the separation and recognition of chiral enantiomers and structural analogues, and displayed high immunity from interferences. The work on surface imprinted Mn-QDs received good comments from Prof. Whitcombe while the work on MIPs-based sensor array was selected as a model system in a review on MIPs sensor array by Shimizu.

This project has published 81 scientific papers (including 16 papers in Anal. Chem., 1 paper in Acc. Chem. Res., 3 papers in Angew. Chem., 2 papers in JACS, 1 paper in Adv. Mater.) with 1925 SCI non-self-citations. Besides, the principal achiever Yan Xiu-Ping was appointed as the Associated Editor of Anal. Methods, and Editorial/Advisory Board Member of 4 esteemed scientific journals such as Anal. Chim. Acta.