Arginine-responsive terbium luminescent hybrid sensors triggered by two crown ether carboxylic acids

• Crown ether carboxylic acids were found to sensitize terbium ions among a group of ethers.
• The complexes and silica hybrid materials were both prepared and characterized.
• They could exhibit remarkable green emissions in pure water.

Crown ether carboxylic acids constitute main building blocks for the synthesis of terbium containing covalent cross-linked luminescent materials. Both the complexes and the hybrid nanomaterials could exhibit remarkable green emissions in pure water. More importantly, they were found to have a profound effect on the luminescence responses to arginine compared with glutamic acid, histidine, tryptophan, threonine, tyrosine and phenylalanine in aqueous environment. The present study provided the possibility of using a host–guest mechanism as a way of signal transduction based on lanthanide supramolecular hybrid materials.