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.