Double signal amplification sandwich-structured immunosensor based on TiO 2 nanoparticles enhanced CdSe@ZnS QDs electrochemiluminescence and the dramatic quenching effect of Au@polydopamine nanoparticles

Electrochemiluminescence Enhancement and Particle Structure Stabilization of Polymer Nanoparticle by Doping Anionic Polyelectrolyte and Cationic Polymer Containing Tertiary Amine Groups and Its Highly Sensitive Immunoanalysis

A doped polymer nanoparticle (dPNP) of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) was prepared via doping the anionic polyelectrolyte polyacrylic acid (PAA) and the cationic polymer poly-ethyleneimine (PEI) into the polymer nanoparticle (PNP), which was self-assembled by Ru(bpy)32+ derivative-grafted PAA (PAA–Ru) with both cations and anions. The good electrical conductivity of the doped polyelectrolyte PAA enhanced the ECL intensity of PNP to 109.1%, and the involvement of a large number of tertiary amine groups of the doped PEI further enhanced that to 127.3%; meanwhile, doping low-molecular-weight PEI into PNP, while simultaneously doping high-molecular-weight PAA, avoided the precipitation of PAA and PEI, due to interaction of the two oppositely charged polymers; and these also made the self-assembly procedure more effective and the nanoparticle structure more stable than PNP and also led to the production of rich residual PAA chains on the surface of dPNP. The storage results showed that the average hydrated particle diameter kept almost constant (197.5–213.1 nm) during 15-day storage and that the nanoparticles have rich surface charge of −11.47 mV (zeta potential), well suspension stability and good dispersity without detectable aggregation in the solution during the storage. Therefore, the nanoparticle is quite suitable for the antibody labeling, immunoassay and the storage. As a result, a high-sensitive ECL immunoassay approach with good precision, accuracy and selectivity was established and an ultra-low detection limit of 0.049 pg mL−1 (S/N = 3) for magnetic bead-based detection of Hepatitis B surface antigen was observed.

A visual electrochemiluminescence biosensor based on CuInZnS quantum dots for superoxide dismutase detection

Superoxide dismutase (SOD), also known as liver protein, is a substance widely distributed in various biological cells. It has the function of catalyzing the disproportionation reaction of superoxide free radicals. SOD can form an antioxidant chain together with peroxidase, catalase, and other substances in the body of organisms, and thus, is one of the indispensable important substances in the body of organisms. In this work, we provided a simple and fast visual electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor for SOD detection. CuInZnS quantum dots (QDs) worked as the ECL luminophore with hydrogen peroxide as co-reactant. In the sensing process, SOD and CuInZnS QDs on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) competed with each other for hydrogen peroxide to produce superoxide during electrochemical luminescence, thus quenching the ECL signal of CuInZnS QDs. The proposed sensor can quantify SOD with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.03 μg/mL. In addition, the change in the CuInZnS QDs ECL signal was easily observed with a smartphone camera. The results indicated that this sensor could effectively work in the detection of SOD in human blood. Graphical abstract.

Ultrasensitive detection of transcription factors with a highly-efficient diaminoterephthalate fluorophore via an electrogenerated chemiluminescence strategy

Herein, we apply electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) based method employing diaminoterephthalate analogue as ECL emitter and hairpin DNA as amplification strategy, for sensitive assay of transcription factors.