This work presents a study on the luminescence properties of a carbazole-substituted aluminum quinolone (Alq3) derivative. Firstly, the effect of solvents on the luminescence properties of the Alq3 derivative was studied. The results indicate that energy transfer can occur from carbazole to Alq3 for the Alq3 derivative in all different solvent systems. However, solvent affects the spatial structure and electronic structure of the Alq3 derivative that have an impact on the efficiency of energy transfer, leading to different luminescence spectra, efficiency and lifetime for different solvent systems. Among them, toluene plays a role of bridge in energy transfer, but a large amount of DMF plays negative role in energy transfer. Like DMF, DMA acting as an electron donor also plays similar role. Besides, effects of metal ions on the luminescence properties of the Alq3 derivative were also studied. The results show that Fe3+ and Cu2+ can cause fluorescence quenching, and the fluorescence quench effect is also affected by acid counteranions. These results indicate that the Alq3 derivative might be exploited as a multifunctional fluorescent sensing material.