High-efficiency, mild-conditioned tandem Knoevenagel-Michael reaction was utilized to post-modify aldehydecontaining, triphenylamine-based precursor conjugated polymer (CP1) to afford dimedone-decorated aimed polymer (CP2). The chemical structure of CP2 was verified by FTIR and H-1 NMR analyses. With the introduction of aqueous Hg2+, fluorescence of CP2 in THF-water mixture (V-THF/V(water=)1/100) (buffered with 5 mMsodium dihydrogen phosphate-disodium hydrogen phosphate (PB), pH =7.4) altered significantly, with the emission changed from blue to orange. Besides this, CP2 also displayed specific optical response to ClO- in another probing medium (V-THF/V-water =1/100), (buffered with 5 mM PBS (with NaCl in PB, pH=7.4). The detailed probing process and the plausible detection mechanism of CP2 to Hg2+ and ClO- were systematically investigated here. (C) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.