When consumed, excess progesterone
(P4)found in food and
the environmentcan lead to severe illnesses in humans. Therefore,
quantitative analysis of P4 is critical for identifying its hazardous
levels. In this study, a novel signal “on-amplified-off”
P4 detection mode was proposed, which was based on the utilization
of hafnium oxide (HfO2) as a unique electrochemiluminescence
(ECL) emitter, produced by calcining UiO-66(Hf). This is the first
time that HfO2 has been used as an ECL emitter. HfO2 displayed excellent conductivity and a high specific surface
area, allowing it to connect with numerous aptamers and produce a
“signal-on” effect. Ni-doped ZnO (Ni-ZnO) acted as a
coreaction accelerator, enhancing the ECL strength of HfO2 by generating more tripropylamine radicals. cDNA was labeled with
Ni-ZnO, and Ni-ZnO was linked to the aptamer via base complementary
pairing, affording “signal-amplified”. The presence
of the target molecule P4 instigated a specific binding process with
the aptamer, triggering the shedding of cDNA-Ni-ZnO and resulting
in “signal-off”. This novel “on-amplified-off”
strategy effectively improved the sensitivity and specificity of P4
analysis, introducing a practical method for detecting biomolecules
beyond the scope of this study, which holds immense potential for
future applications.