Recent advances on cellulose-based fluorescent smart materials: Design, fabrication and their applications

Cellulose, as the most abundant, renewable and biodegradable natural polymer on earth, is one of most ideal carriers for intelligent fluorescent materials due to its high specific surface area, excellent mechanical properties, chemically modifiable hydroxyl network, etc. Through physical blending, chemical grafting, in-situ synthesis, or biological template strategies, the cellulose-based composite systems with high quantum efficiency, environmental responsiveness and flexible processability can be constructed. Compared to traditional fluorescent molecular probes, cellulose-based fluorescent composites have significant advantages in terms of portability, stability, and application range. Such materials show great potential in environmental monitoring and remediation, intelligent food packaging and detection, information anti-counterfeiting and encryption, biomedical imaging, lighting and display, etc. To better develop the synergistic applications of cellulose-based fluorescent composites in various scenarios, this paper briefly introduces the properties of cellulose and its derivatives as well as the preparation methods of multifunctional cellulose-based fluorescent materials. It focuses on reviewing the latest progress of cellulose-based fluorescent materials in the above-mentioned emerging fields and analyzes the opportunities they face in terms of scalable preparation and multifunctional integration. We hope that this review can inspire cellulose-based fluorescent composites to move towards higher performance, lower cost, and wider applications, and promote their more far-reaching impact in sustainable optical technologies.