Stimuli‐responsive fluorescent hydrogels: Strategies and applications

Abstract Stimuli‐responsive fluorescent hydrogels are three‐dimensional networked polymeric materials with tunable luminescence and dynamic properties, which play an important role as a water‐rich soft material in the fields of information encryption, bionic actuation, bioimaging, environmental monitoring, and luminescent materials. Compared with conventional hydrogels, their unique luminescent properties allow the visualization of microscopic dynamics within the polymer network. By rational inclusion of dynamic motifs, such as photoswitches, AIEgens, lanthanide complexes, and host–guest complexes, these materials are endowed with tunability of emission, shape, and phase in time and space in response to environmental effectors. In this review, we summarize the fabrication strategies that are mainly used by recently reported stimuli‐responsive fluorescent hydrogels and the applications of these materials.