In this work, the fluorescent molecule (fluorescein sodium, FS) was successfully incorporated in the zirconium-based MOF (Ui0-66) via in-situ synthesis method, which can be confirmed by FTIR spectra and fluorescence microscopic images. Based on this in-situ synthesis strategy, FS molecule can be immobilized tightly in the framework. Furthermore, the resulting FS@UiO-66 demonstrates to be a highly selective, real-time and naked -eye chemical sensor for fluoride in aqueous solution, which is mainly due to the release of FS molecule from FS@UiO-66 into the aqueous solution. Meanwhile, to the best of our knowledge, such Zr-MOF-based fluoride sensor is very rare so far. These results provide a promising approach to rationally design novel MOF-based fluorescent sensor for the target molecules. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.