Generally, instable metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were seldom used in many applications compared to stable MOFs. However, due to the huge amount of these MOFs and the diversity of the instability, effective use of instable MOFs is necessary and important. As one of classical MOFs, Cu-BTC was applied in many fields including adsorption, separation and catalysis based on its stability. Different from the previous reports, this work mainly focuses on the special instability of Cu-BTC towards the thiol molecules. In detail, a fluorescent molecule (rhodamine B, RhB) was incorporated into Cu-BTC crystals through in-situ synthesis strategy to construct the new sensor, RhB@Cu-BTC. As expected, based on the collapse of Cu-BTC framework caused by L-Cysteine (L-Cys), RhB@Cu-BTC can sense this thiol-containing amino acid selectively and sensitively with naked eyes. The sensor also exhibits a low detection limit of 0.702 μmol L⁻¹.

通常，与稳定的MOF相比，不稳定的金属有机骨架（MOF）很少用于许多应用中。但是，由于这些MOF数量巨大且不稳定，因此，有效使用不稳定的MOF是必要且重要的。作为经典的MOF之一，基于其稳定性，Cu-BTC被广泛应用于吸附，分离和催化等领域。与以前的报告不同，这项工作主要集中在Cu-BTC对硫醇分子的特殊不稳定性上。详细地，通过原位合成策略将荧光分子（若丹明B，RhB）掺入Cu-BTC晶体中，以构建新的传感器RhB @ Cu-BTC。正如预期的那样，基于由L-半胱氨酸（L-Cys），RhB @ Cu-BTC可以用肉眼选择性和敏感地感测此含硫醇的氨基酸。该传感器还表现出0.702μmolL ^-1的低检测限。