Tetraphenylethylene nanocrystals as new ECL emitters with near-infrared aggregation-induced enhanced electrochemiluminescence exhibited high ECL efficiency and excellent biocompatibility.

The electrochemiluminescence (ECL) properties of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are excellent on account of the high photoluminescence quantum yield. However, the poor solubility and radical instability of PAHs in the aqueous solution severely restricted further biological application. Here 9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA) nanoblocks (NBs) with good dispersibility and stability in aqueous solution were prepared according to morphology-controlled technology employing water-soluble polymers as a protectant. Furthermore, an ECL "off-on" switch biosensor was developed based on a novel ECL ternary system with DPA NBs as luminophore, dissolved O as coreactant, and Pt-Ag alloy nanoflowers as the coreaction accelerator, which achieved a high-intense initial ECL signal. Subsequently, the Fc-DNA as ECL signal quencher was assembled on the electrode surface to quench the initial ECL signal for a "signal-off" state. Meanwhile, DNA swing arm was modified on the electrode surface for one-step DNA walker amplification. Interestingly, in the presence of miRNA-141 and T7 Exo, the one-step DNA walker amplification was executed to recover a strong ECL signal as a "signal-on" state by the digestion of Fc-DNA. Thus the developed ECL "off-on" switch biosensor possesses a detection limit down to 29.5 aM for ultrasensitive detection of miRNA-141, which is expected to be applicable to the detection of miRNA in clinic tumor cells.

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A facile and high-yield route, dropping method, has been used to synthesize Ni nanowires (NWs) with a high aspect ratio. Compared to the conventional chemical reduction method, the diameter of Ni NWs prepared by the dropping method distinctively decreased and the surface roughness was improved. After optimizing the process parameters such as the Ni ion concentration and volume of the dropped NiCl2·6H2O solution, the diameter and aspect ratio of the NWs are 70 nm and ~600, respectively. The possible synthesized process of the dropping method was discussed. This work presents a preferred approach to fabricate high-quality one-dimensional magnetic materials which have potential applications in electrochemical devices, magnetic sensors, and catalytic agents.

Herein, the boron radical active sites of boron carbon oxynitride quantum dots (BCNO QDs) are electrically excited to produce boron radicals (B•) for catalyzing peroxydisulfate (S2O8 2–) as a coreactant to accelerate the generation of abundant sulfate radicals (SO4 •–) for significant enhancement in the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) efficiency of BCNO QDs, which overcome the defect of traditional carbon-based QDs with low ECL efficiency. Impressively, under extremely low concentration of S2O8 2– solution, the BCNO QDs/S2O8 2– system could exhibit high ECL emission, realizing environmental friendliness and excellent biocompatibility for sensitive bioanalysis. As a proof-of-concept, BCNO QDs, a new generation of ECL emitters with high ECL efficiency, were successfully used in the ultrasensitive determination of microRNA-21, which pushes the exploration of new ECL emitters and broadens the application in the field of clinical diagnosis, ECL imaging, and molecular devices.