Assembly of novel Tb3+/Eu3+ sensitized cellulose gels and their emission behaviors

In this paper, a novel luminescent hydrogel was successfully prepared by incorporating Tb-HSA (HSA = Human Serum Albumin) complex into cellulose host. The green luminescence intensities of Tb(III) exhibited on-off changes in terms of pH variation. At the same time, europium activated phosphor (GdVO4:Eu3+) was immobilized into the cellulose hydrogels through two approaches. The photophysical properties of luminescent gels with the temperature variation were investigated by fluorescence. The new group of soft materials will display task-specific usages in sensing fields.