Cu2+ is one of the essential trace elements for human metabolism, while excess ingestion will cause metabolic disorders even diseases. However, Cu2+ has been elevated levels in living environment due to overuse and inappropriate reprocessing measures of copper, which makes Cu2+ one of the toxic heavy metal pollutions. Therefore, the continuous concern over Cu2+ pollution has been a hot issue and attracted interest in the detection methods for Cu2+. Fluorescent spectrometry based on fluorescence probe has been widely used in ion detection field owing to good selectivity and high sensitivity. So far, researchers have developed fluorescence probes for Cu2+ detection based on selectional weak interaction between probe molecules and ions to be measured. However, these strategies all involve selectivity or sensitivity drawbacks, making the probes difficult for practical applications. Here, we designed and synthesized a new molecule 9,10-bis (3’-hydroxy-4’-thiosemicarbazide) phenylanthracene (b-HTPA) as a fluorescence probe for Cu2+ detection. The electron configuration of b-HTPA would change through coordinating with Cu2+, which would cause the remarkable change of fluorescence property of the b-HTPA as responsiveness for Cu2+. Characterizations of the detection of b-HTPA for Cu2+ were mainly carried out by down/up conversion fluorescence spectral. Results of selectivity research showed that Cu2+ has the strongest fluorescence quenching effect compared with the other thirteen kinds of metal cations. Besides, upon addition of Cu2+about 150-fold decreasement of fluorescence intensity was observed compared to other metal cations. The results indicated the good selectivity of b-HTPA to Cu2+. Results of sensitivity research showed that the detection limit of b-HTPA to Cu2+ was 2.78×10-7 mol·L-1 which was much lower than the hygienic standard for drinking water (GB5749—2006), which indicated high fluorescent response sensitivity and ideal detection limit. The results of response time test revealed that interaction rate between b-HTPA and Cu2+ was very high in the first two minutes and completely reacted within ten minutes, which showed that b-HTPA could be capable of reacting intensively with Cu2+ in short time which may save detection period. Moreover, up-conversion fluorescence spectra were also used for the sensitivity evaluation of b-HTPA to Cu2+ with palladium(Ⅱ) octaetylporphyrin (PdOEP)as the sensitizer. The research results showed that intensity of up-conversion fluorescence obviously declined upon the addition of Cu2+ and the detection limit was 3.78×10-6 mol·L-1 which is also lower than the hygienic standard. This work designed and synthesized the 9,10-bis (3’-hydroxy-4’-thiosemicarbazide) phenylanthracene as a fluorescence probe for Cu2+ detection, and the probe was proved to have highly selective and sensitive. Moreover, the probe b-HTPA had ideal detection limit and short detection period, which gave it great potential in the field of Cu2+ detection.