In this paper, we report the synthesis of a multifunctional fluorescent probe Tb-CP, Tb(HL)(EtOH)2(NO3)2 (HPU-10) (H2L = 2,6-bis-(5-pyridin-4-yl-1H-[1,2,4]triazol-3-yl)- pyridine), and demonstrate that this novel chemosensor has the property of ratiometric detection of Zn2+ and Cd2+. The detection limit of HPU-10 sensing Zn2+ and Cd2+ is 0.319 and 0.965 μM, respectively. The sensing mechanism can be explained by (i) the decomposition of HPU-10 and (ii) the recombination of Zn2+ or Cd2+ with ligand forming 2HL--Zn2+ or 2HL--Cd2+, respectively. Moreover, the fluorescent sensor HPU-10 can detect the nitroaromatic compound 2, 4-DNP via a fluorescence quenching mechanism. The detection limits obtained from linear regression curve plots of 2, 4-DNP is calculated to be 1.69 μM. In addition, the possible use of the probe coated paper for tracing the target analytes has also been presented.