By the solvothermal assembly of Gd3+ and 5,5'-(anthracene-9,10-diyl)diisophthalic acid (H(4)adip), an anthracene-based lanthanide coordination polymer (CP), [Gd-2(adip)(H(2)adip)(NMP)(2)]center dot DMF center dot 3H(2)O (1; NMP = N-methylpyrrolidone; DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide), has been prepared. It possesses a 3D framework and a strong ligand-based blue emission. 1 could be applied as a multifunctional chemical sensor for UO22+, PO43-, and 2-thiazolidinethione-4-carboxylic acid (TTCA) with excellent selectivity, sensitivity, and anti-interference. In the 0-20 mu M concentration range of UO22+, the quenching constant (K-SV) is 4.05 X 10(4) M-1 with a detection limit of 1.42 mu M. Fluorescence enhancement was observed when PO43- was added to the 1-H2O suspension. The slope of the linear relationship between the PO43- concentration in the 0-35 mu M concentration range and I/I-0 is 3.70 x 10(4) M-1 with a detection limit of 1.55 mu M. When the TTCA concentration is lower than 20 mu M, the fluorescence quenching constant K-SV is 1.77 x 10(4) M-1 with a detection limit of 3.25 mu M, which approaches the values reported of the best CP-based sensing materials for TTCA up to now. Moreover, the fluorescence quenching or enhancement mechanism was also investigated.