Metal-enhanced chemiluminescence: advanced chemiluminescence concepts for the 21st century

Abstract

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...

Advances in nanomaterial-assisted cataluminescence and its sensing applications

“…Undoubtedly, CL has attracted much attention of researchers for its potential applications in analytical chemistry. The increasing popularity of CL for chemical analysis is apparent from the literature, although most efforts are in solution-based measurement {e.g., Lin and Lu [1][2][3][4], Aslan and Geddes [5], Giokas and Vlessidis [6], Wang [7], Ju [8], and Lv et al [9].…”

Plasmonic luminescent core–shell nanocomposites-enhanced chemiluminescence arising from the decomposition of peroxomonosulfite

“…Notably, the coupling of chemically induced excited states with surface plasmons was thought to play the key role in plasmonic luminescent nanocomposites enhanced CL, rather than an increased electric field component, which was confirmed to contribute a lot to the SEF. Because an increased electric field component are not present (or indeed vanishingly weak) when just chemiluminescent solutions are used [1]. The NSFS-enhanced chemiluminescence arising from the decomposition of peroxomonosulfite shows future applications for the sensitive and selective detection of hydrogen peroxide in complex samples.…”

“…As is known to all, fluorophore can act as a sensitizer in CL systems, and thus amplify CL signals [37,38]. Meanwhile, surface plasmon-coupled CL, a phenomenon which describes the near-field interaction of chemically induced excited states with surface plasmons in metal nanoparticles (NPs) can also result in a significant increase in emission intensity [1]. In view of these two phenomena, we cannot help but wonder whether the plasmonic luminescent nanocomposites can have better enhancing effect in the ultraweak CL systems.…”

“…Surface plasmons are the free electrons in metals which collectively oscillate at frequencies similar to light [1,2]. Surface plasmon-enhanced fluorescence (SEF) is the current investigation focus, due to its great potential applications in the field of sensing technologies [3], solid-state lighting [4,5], biotechnology and life sciences [6,7].…”

Silver nanoparticles enhanced a novel TCPO–H 2 O 2 –safranin O chemiluminescence system for determination of 6-mercaptopurine

“…The superior emission of CL has recently been tested for use in biotechnology, industry, medicine, and water treatment plants [1].The attractiveness of CL techniques lies on their simplicity, rapidity, high sensitivity, low cost of instrumentation and maintenance, and requiring no background light. Since CL is directly related to the concentration of the reactants, it has been exploited as an ultrasensitive method for quantification and localization of chemical analytes that generate luminescence by participating in the CL reaction [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”