Chemiluminescent based detection is entrenched throughout the Biosciences today, such as in blotting, analyte and protein quantification and detection. While the biological applications of chemiluminescence are forever growing, the underlying principles of using a probe, an oxidizer and a catalyst (biological, organic or inorganic) have remained mostly unchanged for decades. Subsequently, chemiluminescence based detection is fundamentally limited by the classical photochemical properties of reaction yield, quantum yield, etc. However, for the last 5 years, a new technology has emerged which looks set to fundamentally change the way we both think about and use chemiluminescence today. Metal surface plasmons can amplify chemiluminescence signatures, while low-power microwaves can complete reactions within seconds. In addition, thin metal films, can convert spatially isotopic chemiluminescence into directional emission. In this timely forward looking tutorial review, we survey what could well be the next-generation chemiluminescent based technologies.
ChemiluminescenceChemiluminescence is a useful analytical tool for the detection and quantification of a wide variety of biological materials such as cells, 1 microorganisms, 2, 3 proteins, 4 DNA 5 , RNA 6,7 and also other analytes. 8,9 For detailed information on the specific applications of chemiluminescence, the reader is referred to the references given here [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The usefulness of chemiluminescence is due to its simplicity and the absence of unwanted background luminescence. In chemiluminescence-based detection, no excitation source and no optical filters are required as compared to other optical techniques such as fluorescence and phosphorescence spectroscopy. 10 Chemiluminescence emission is generated by photochemical reactions and is directly related to the concentration of the reactants. The chemical reactions involve the oxidation of an organic dye by a strong oxidizing agent in the presence of a catalyst (chemical or biological). The most commonly used dyes are luminol and acridan, 11 which are not luminescent in the ground state (before an oxidation reaction, Figure 1A). The oxidation of luminol or acridan with hydrogen peroxide (oxidizing agent) in the presence of a catalyst results in the conversion of the ground state of luminol or acridan into an activated state (chemically induced electronic excited states). A strong blue emission (at 450 nm wavelength) can be observed as a as a result of the decay of the excited states back to the ground state. Chemiluminescence solution emission can last from seconds to hours depending on the quantity of reacting species ( Figure 1B). The versatility and simplicity of chemiluminescence has also led to household products/toys such as "glow sticks", which typically employ organic dyes which can emit three primary colors: red, green and blue ( Figure 1C). On the other hand, while chemiluminescence is a versatile tool several factors limit the *Corresponding Authorgeddes@umbi.umd.edu. eff...