Silver Ions as Novel Coreaction Accelerator for Remarkably Enhanced Electrochemiluminescence in a PTCA–S₂O₈^2– System and Its Application in an Ultrasensitive Assay for Mercury Ions

Abstract

In this work, with the use of Ag(I) ion as robust coreaction accelerator for the enhancement of 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic acid-peroxydisulfate (PTCA-SO) system, a highly sensitive solid-state electrochemiluminescence (ECL)-biosensing platform was successfully designed for the detection of mercury ions (Hg). Specifically, a long guanine-rich (C-rich) double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) was generated by the target-Hg-controlled DNA machine that could amplify the ECL signal of the PTCA-SO system by embedding the Ag(I) ion. Herein, the Ag(I) ion, as a coreaction accelerator, could first react with SO to produce Ag(II) ion and a sulfate radical anion (SO). Then, the accompanying Ag(II) ion could react with HO to generate the reactive intermediate species (i.e., hydroxyl radical (OH)), which could further accelerate the reduction of SO to output more SO. Moreover, the recycling of the Ag(I) ion and Ag(II) ion was easily achieved by the electrochemical reaction. Therefore, an avalanche-type reaction was triggered to generate massive amounts of SO, which could react with the luminophore (PTCA) to achieve an extremely strong ECL signal. The ECL mechanism was investigated by ECL and cycle voltammetry (CV) and by the analysis of the fluorescence (FL), ECL, and electron-paramagnetic-resonance (EPR) spectra. As a result, the proposed solid-state ECL-biosensing platform for Hg detection exhibited high sensitivity, with a linear range from 1 × 10 to 1 × 10 M and a detection limit of 3.3 × 10 M. Importantly, this work was the first to utilize a metal ion as a coreaction accelerator and provided a promising approach to improve the sensitivity of target analyses in ECL-biosensing fields.

Triple Amplification of 3,4,9,10-Perylenetetracarboxylic Acid by Co2+-Based Metal–Organic Frameworks and Silver–Cysteine and Its Potential Application for Ultrasensitive Assay of Procalcitonin

“…As shown in Figure 1A, PTCA exhibited a distinct short rod-like structure with a length of ∼500 nm, owing to hydrogen bonding and π−π stacking. 24 Meanwhile, ZIF-67 particles exhibited a dodecahedron structure with side lengths of ∼350 nm (Figure 1B), which was similar to previous papers. 23 Besides, UV characterization was carried out to prove successful synthesis of PTCA-Au@ZIF-67.…”

“…The morphologies and sizes of prepared nanomaterials were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As shown in Figure A, PTCA exhibited a distinct short rod-like structure with a length of ∼500 nm, owing to hydrogen bonding and π–π stacking . Meanwhile, ZIF-67 particles exhibited a dodecahedron structure with side lengths of ∼350 nm (Figure B), which was similar to previous papers .…”

DNA Technology-assisted Signal Amplification Strategies in Electrochemiluminescence Bioanalysis

“…Certain metal ions with catalytic capability can be inserted into special base pairs of HCR products. Lei [107]. Based on the enhancing and quenching effects of the HCR products embedded with Ag + and Ag nanoclusters (in-situ Fig.…”

“…Journal of Analysis and Testing (2021) 5:[95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111] …”

SnS2 Quantum Dots as New Emitters with Strong Electrochemiluminescence for Ultrasensitive Antibody Detection

“…•− , which could further react with SnS 2 QDs to produce more SnS 2 QDs*, achieving a very strong ECL intensity. 36 Consequently, the ECL reaction mechanism of the SnS 2 QDs could be summarized in the following eqs 1−4.…”