Silole-Containing Polymer Nanodot: An Aqueous Low-Potential Electrochemiluminescence Emitter for Biosensing

Abstract

A novel D-A conjugated polymer backbone containing silole and 9-octyl-9H-carbazole units was synthesized via Sonogashira reaction. This silole-containing polymer (SCP) was further used to prepare SCP dots with a nanoprecipitation method, which showed an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emission at relatively low potential in aqueous solution. The strong anodic ECL emission could be observed at +0.4 V (vs Ag/AgCl) with a peak value at +0.78 V in the presence of tri-n-propylamine (TPrA) as a co-reactant, which came from the band gap emission of the excited SCP dots. The ECL emission could be quenched via resonance energy transfer from the excited SCP dots to an acceptor. Thus, a low-potential anodic ECL sensing strategy was proposed for ECL detection of the acceptor-related analytes. Using dopamine as the analyte, whose electro-oxidation product could act as the energy acceptor to quench the ECL emission of SCP dots, the ECL detection method showed a detection limit of 50 nM and high anti-interference ability. This work demonstrates an example of polymer dots as an ECL emitter and its potential application in ECL detection methodology.

Nanomaterials in Electrochemiluminescence Sensors

“…An ECL sensor based on C 60 ‐PAMAM‐PFO, which was produced via electrostatic adsorption between the negatively charged PFO dots and positively charged C 60 ‐PAMAM, was successfully constructed for the quantitative detection of H 2 O 2 . Another aqueous ECL Pdots which contain silole and 9‐octyl‐9H‐carbazole units as shown in Figure , is reported by Ju and coworkers . This silole‐containing polymer (SCP) dots, which was prepared through a nanoprecipitation method, exhibited an ECL emission in the presence of co‐reactant in aqueous solution.…”

“…Semiconducting polymer dots (Pdots) which possess excellent biocompatibility and tunable optical properties, have been investigated as a novel class of emissive nanoprobe for applications in biological analysis and diagnosis . The research efforts in recent years are mainly devoted to the development of aqueous ECL Pdots.…”

Recent Advances in Aggregation‐Induced Electrochemiluminescence

“…Cheng and co-workers reported aD -A conjugated polymer containing silole and 9-octyl-9 H-carbazole components with al ow potential in aqueous solution for biosensing. [43] Ju and colleagues published poly[(9,9-dioctylfuorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-co-(1,4-benzo-{2,1',3}-thiadiazole)] PDots for multiimmunoassay, [37b] Ru(bpy)3 2 + -doped polymer dots (RuPdots) for detection of single-nucleotide polymorphism, [38] and poly[2methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-(1-cyanovinylene-1,4-phenylene)] (CN-PPV) PDots for metal ion analysis. [37a] Chen et al applied poly(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) (PFO) for melamine detection by injectingd issolved polymer into water.…”

Bottom‐Up Characterization and Self‐Assembly of Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence Active Ruthenium Nanospheres

“…In an early example of this, multiple luminophores were connected using organic linkers . Multi‐luminophore studies have since built upon this premise by scaling up the number of luminophores through integrating them into polymers –…”