Novel Ru(bpy)2(cpaphen)2+/TPrA/TiO2 Ternary ECL System: An Efficient Platform for the Detection of Glutathione with Mn2+ as Substitute Target.

A sensitive electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor was developed for glutathione (GSH) detection based on a novel Ru(bpy)2(cpaphen)2+/TPrA/TiO2 ternary ECL system with Mn2+ as substitute target for signal amplification. Specifically, the TiO2 nanoneedles (TiO2 NNs) were used as the coreaction accelerator for the first time to promote the oxidation process of coreactant tripropylamine (TPrA) in the anode and significantly increase the ECL signal of Ru(bpy)2(cpaphen)2+ for an amplified initial signal. Meanwhile, a novel target conversion strategy for GSH was developed by reducing MnO2 nanosheets to Mn2+ as a substitute target, which played the role of a coenzyme factor for cleaving DNA double strands intercalated with Ru(bpy)2(cpaphen)2+ to markedly weaken initial signal. As a result, the novel "on-off" biosensor achieved a sensitive detection of GSH range from 5 µM to 215 µM with a detection limit of 0.33 µM. Importantly, the proposed strategy enriched the application of Ru complex and TPrA ECL system in bioanalytical applications, and provided a new signal amplification strategy for bioactive small molecules.

Electrochemiluminescence Enhanced by Restriction of Intramolecular Motions (RIM): Tetraphenylethylene Microcrystals as a Novel Emitter for Mucin 1 Detection.

Apart from the reported energy transfer mechanism of aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence (AI-ECL) enhancement, a new strategy named restriction of intramolecular motions-driven ECL (RIM-ECL) enhancement is first proposed based on the phenomenon of a very strong electrochemiluminescence observed on the hexagonal tetraphenylethylene microcrystals (TPE MCs) in aqueous solution. Compared to TPE in molecule-isolation state with faint ECL, TPE in aggregate state (TPE MCs) showed a significantly enhanced ECL that was due to the restriction of intramolecular motions (RIM). Inspired by the unique luminescence characteristic of TPE MCs, we integrated the novel ECL emitter of TPE MCs and target-activated bipedal DNA walker together to fabricate a sensitive "off-on" ECL biosensor for Mucin 1 (MUC1) assay, which exhibited desirable linear response for a concentration scope from 1 fg/mL to 1 ng/mL with a low detection limit of 0.29 fg/mL. The RIM enhanced ECL demonstrated by the TPE MCs provides a new chapter in the exploration of aggregated organic emitters for further applications.

Stable gold graphitic nanocapsule doped hydrogels for efficient photothermal antibacterial applications.

Herein, we have fabricated gold nanorod graphitic nanocapsule (AuNR@G) doped poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/chitosan (CS) hydrogels, which possessed highly efficient and stable photothermal antibacterial properties for both Gram-negative E. coli and Gram-positive S. aureus under the irradiation of a near-infrared laser.

Enzyme-free Target Recycling and Double-Output Amplification System for Electrochemiluminescent Assay of Mucin 1 with MoS2 Nanoflowers as Co-reaction Accelerator.

In this work, a sensitive electrochemiluminescent assay of mucin 1 (MUC1) was developed with the advantages of target recycling amplification strategy and effective MoS2 nanoflower (MoS2 NF)-based signal probe. Briefly, the target MUC1 triggered enzyme-free recycling and a double-output amplification process was executed to acquire masses of single-stranded DNA as a mimic target, which further participated in the catalytic hairpin assembly process for signal amplification. Meanwhile, MoS2 NFs were prepared as an effective co-reaction accelerator, which not only possessed excellent catalytic performance for H2O2 decomposition to largely enhance the luminous intensity of N-(aminobutyl)- N-(ethylisoluminol) (ABEI)-H2O2 electrochemiluminescence system but also offered a desirable platform for ABEI-functionalized Ag nanoparticles (ABEI-Ag complexes) loading via Ag-S binding. The experimental results showed the proposed aptasensor had a good linear relationship in the range of 1 fg/mL to 10 ng/mL for MUC1 detection and the limit of detection was 0.58 fg/mL (S/N = 3). In addition, the aptasensor had nice stability and selectivity and huge potential to be applied in clinical research.

In situ generation of electrochemiluminescent DNA nanoflowers as a signal tag for mucin 1 detection based on a strategy of target and mimic target synchronous cycling amplification.

A sensitive electrochemiluminescent (ECL) aptasensor consisting of a novel ECL signal tag of DNA nanoflowers (DNA NFs) and a highly efficient target conversion strategy for the MUC1 assay was developed, which not only increased the stability for luminophore loading, but also greatly improved the detection sensitivity.

Using the hydrothermal method to grow p-type ZnO nanowires on Al-doped ZnO thin film to fabricate a homojunction diode.

In this study, the hydrothermal method is used to grow phosphorus-doped ZnO nanowires on Si/SiO2 substrates deposited with Al-doped ZnO thin film. This structure forms a homogeneous p-n junction. In this study, we are the pioneers to use ammonium hypophosphite (NH4H2PO2) as a source of phosphorus to prepare the precursor solution. Ammonium hypophosphite of different concentration levels is used to observe its effects on the growth of nanowires. The results show that the precursor solution prepared from ammonium hypophosphite can produce good crystalline ZnO nanowires while there is no linear relationship between the amounts and concentration levels of phosphorus doped into the nanowires. Whether the phosphorus-doped ZnO nanowires have the characteristics of a p-type semiconductor is indirectly verified by measuring whether the p-n junction made up of Al-doped ZnO thin film and phosphorus-doped ZnO nanowires shows rectifying behavior. I-V measurements are made on the specimens. The results show good rectifying behavior, proving that the phosphorus-doped ZnO nanowires and Al-doped AZO films have p-type and n-type semiconductor properties, constituting a good p-n junction. This result also proves that ammonium hypophosphite is a better source of phosphorus in the hydrothermal method to synthesize phosphorus-doped ZnO nanowires.