A triphenylamine-based acylhydrazone derivative (TBHM) was synthesized, and its emission properties either in solution or in the solid state were studied. It was demonstrated that TBHM showed a significant solvation effect, and the TBHM solution exhibited a very strong fluorescence quenching effect in the presence of iron ions with the detection limit of 9.7 × 10−7 M. In addition, TBHM displayed reversible blue and cyan emissions upon being ground and annealed. Furthermore, TBHM exhibited significant reversible acid/base induced fluorescence conversion characteristics in both organogel and xerogel states due to the protonation effect.
