Aggregation-induced emission of hybrid microcrystalline cellulose/metal–organic framework for selective spectrofluorometric detection of nirmatrelvir

• Ligand based luminescent metal organic framework as a sensor for nirmatrelvir. • Sensor for Nirmatrelvir, a weekly chromophoric drug was developed. • The nanoprobe was applied to determine Nirmatrelvir in dosage form through AIE phenomena. • AGREE, AGREEprep, and BAGI metrics were evaluated for the method. This study presents the creation of a nanoprobe composed by a ligand based luminescent metal organic framework consisting from Ca trimesic acid-microcrystalline cellulose (Ca-TMA/MCC) as a sensor for nirmatrelvir (NTV), a weekly chromophoric drug. The sensor was evaluated using spectroscopic methods, HR-SEM, XRD, and FTIR. The hybrid displayed distinct morphological characteristics compared to both the MCC and the Ca-TMA MOF if analyzed by HR-SEM. The diffraction patterns of Ca-TMA/MCC composites clearly exhibited the distinctive Ca-TMA MOF diffraction bands, suggesting the effective incorporation of MCC in the creation of crystalline MOF hybrids. Furthermore, the FTIR spectra displayed the characteristic bands of both MCC and Ca-TMA MOFs. The nanoprobe that was created demonstrated successful application as a highly sensitive, specific, and precise sensor for detecting NTV in commercially accessible dosage forms. The optimum conditions found for the NTV quantification were: deionized water as dispersion solvent of the developed hybrid, and 6 min as incubation time. A broad range of linearity was successfully attained, spanning from 2.5 to 75 µg/mL, accompanied with a high correlation coefficient of 0.9969. The recovery was confirmed to be within the range of 99.8 % and 100.6 %, while the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were seen to be in the range of 0.1 % to 1.7 %. As highlighted by the obtained results, the method was accurate according to ICH Q2(R2), and it was successfully applied to the NTV determination in commercially available dosage. Additional advantage is represented by its good performances in terms of currently recognized metrics for the environmental impact (AGREE and AGREEprep) and its applicability (BAGI).