Anodic, Cathodic, and Annihilation Electrochemiluminescence Emissions from Hydrophilic Conjugated Polymer Dots in Aqueous Medium

Abstract

Hydrophilic poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV) conjugated polymer dots (CP-dots) capped by Triton X-100 were synthesized. For the first time, the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emission of CP-dots was investigated in aqueous solution. At the glassy carbon/water interface, the CP-dots have excellent and multichannel ECL properties, such as having annihilation ECL activity in the absence of coreactants, and give bright anodic and cathodic ECL emission (590 nm) in the presence of tri-n-propylamine (TPrA) and peroxydisulfate (S2O8(2-)), respectively. The versatile ECL properties of the hydrophilic CP-dots combined with their low cytotoxicity, good biocompatibility, and easy bioconjugation may suggest promising applications of this new type of ECL nanomaterial in novel biosensing and bioimaging, and new types of light-emitting devices.

Recent Advances in the Development of Highly Luminescent Semiconducting Polymer Dots and Nanoparticles for Biological Imaging and Medicine

“…Recently, several research groups have reported ECL in other Pdots 50 and CPNs 47–49,53 composed of different semiconducting polymers. They also applied ECL Pdots or CPNs as sensors.…”

Recent Advances in Aggregation‐Induced Electrochemiluminescence

“…[45] Chi and co-workersd eveloped many polymers capped with Triton X-100 for better ECL behavior. [39] In all, PDots represent avital part of ECL materials.I tisrecommended that AIE experimentss hould be added to help authors understand if AIECL is active in these systems.…”

“…Besides the above PDots, there are many other PDots that might be underestimated because of the method of PDots formation. After synthesis of polymer molecules, many techniques such as reprecipitation, ultrasonication, microemulsion have been applied in forming nanoparticles with various morphologies. This procedure makes polymers aggregate into dots with a certain shape and size.…”

“…Then, PFO dots were applied in oxidoreductase‐based ECL biosensing . Chi and co‐workers developed many polymers capped with Triton X‐100 for better ECL behavior . In all, PDots represent a vital part of ECL materials.…”

Nanomaterials in Electrochemiluminescence Sensors

“…To get insight into the hydrophilic/hydrophobic effects of Pdots on the ECL behaviors, Chi et al gave a detailed comparison experiments on this issue. [114] They adopted poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV) conjugated polymer dots (CPdots) with and without the nonionic surfactant Triton X-100 as ECL sensors. As presented in Figure 7C, the bare CP-dots which show hydrophobic feature do not give any ECL or CV peak.…”