Cellulose-based fluorescent materials for chemical sensing applications

In recent years, the advancement of environmentally high-response sensing materials has acquired notability for their highly sensitive and selective analytical properties and instrument-free portable applications. However, exploration and progress of biopolymer-based multifunctional materials as substitutes for petroleum-based products are attracting growing concern. As one of the most abundant and widely used raw materials on earth, based on chemical bonding, self-assembly and coordination, cellulose could endow fluorescent sensing materials with the advantages of ease of fabrication and economical advantage in preparation, multi- functionality and security in utilization, and renewability and biodegradability in post-consumption processing. Towards a reasonable design and utilization of cellulose and its derivatives within the domain of fluorescent sensing, the progress of fabrication and employment of cellulose-based fluorescent materials in recent years are reviewed, and the functions of cellulose as well as the sensing mechanism of fluorescent materials are summarized. In particular, the perspective of cellulose-based fluorescent materials for sensing are discussed from the design and functionality perspectives, and the future opportunities for the development of this material system are analyzed to promote its more advanced sensing applications through improved scalability and multifunctionality.