The design of tailor-made gelators has attracted tremendous level of attention for the fabrication of novel nanogels with responsive characteristics. Exploiting the gel properties of nanocellulose (NC) because of its abundance, sustainability and renewability, we reported the fabrication of a fluorescent hydrogel based on S,N-codoped Graphene Quantum Dots (S,N-GQDs) acting as luminophore and sensitizer. The incorporation of the GQDs into the hydrogel resulted in a significant fluorescence intensity enhancement if compared to GQ.D solutions. In conjunction with recent efforts in the applicability of optical responsive gels, a simple method based on the selectively sensing ability of the GQD/NC hydrogel towards 2,4,5-trichlorophenol (TCP) through the fluorescence enhancement is disclosed. The validity of this strategy is demonstrated with the analysis of TCP in red wine and environmental water samples. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.