Shen Zhao-Chen, Chen Yi-Fei, Chai Ya-Qin, Liu Jia-Li, Yuan Ruo
Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, P.R. China.
College of Sericulture, Textile and Biomass Science, State Key Laboratory of Resource Insects, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, P.R. China.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2025 Aug 25;64(35):e202509884. doi: 10.1002/anie.202509884. Epub 2025 Jul 11.
Herein, entire near-infrared-I (NIR-I) electrochemiluminescence (ECL) enhancement of gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) is achieved by continuously regulating the plasmon resonance absorption wavelength of gold nanorods (Au NRs) to precisely match ECL emission wavelength of Au NCs (abbreviated as Au NCs/Au NRs), which challenges the drawbacks of traditional single wavelength ECL enhancement strategy. Interestingly, within the range of 670-820 nm, the ECL intensity of Au NCs/Au NRs is 3-4 times higher than that of individual Au NCs due to the acceleration of electron-hole recombination and radiation transition rate through high energy electromagnetic field. As a proof of concept, the Au NCs/Au NRs with the ECL emission of 670 nm is employed as high-efficiency ECL emitter to achieve high-resolution ECL image and construct biosensor for realizing ultrasensitive detection of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) related to liver failure. Significantly, the proposed ECL enhancement strategy effectively enhances the ECL emission of metal nanoclusters (M NCs) over a wide wavelength range and advances a new path for other tunable nanomaterials to enhance the ECL emission of M NCs, which is expected to be applied to in the field of multispectral ECL imaging, multimodal optoelectronic devices, and spectrum-resolved multiplexed biosensing systems.
在此，通过连续调节金纳米棒（Au NRs）的等离子体共振吸收波长，使其与金纳米簇（Au NCs）的电化学发光（ECL）发射波长精确匹配（简称为Au NCs/Au NRs），实现了金纳米簇（Au NCs）在近红外-I（NIR-I）区域的整体电化学发光增强，这克服了传统单波长ECL增强策略的缺点。有趣的是，在670 - 820 nm范围内，由于通过高能电磁场加速了电子-空穴复合和辐射跃迁速率，Au NCs/Au NRs的ECL强度比单个Au NCs高3 - 4倍。作为概念验证，发射波长为670 nm的Au NCs/Au NRs被用作高效ECL发射体，以实现高分辨率ECL成像，并构建生物传感器用于超灵敏检测与肝功能衰竭相关的基质金属蛋白酶-2（MMP-2）。值得注意的是，所提出的ECL增强策略在很宽的波长范围内有效增强了金属纳米簇（M NCs）的ECL发射，并为其他可调节纳米材料增强M NCs的ECL发射开辟了一条新途径，有望应用于多光谱ECL成像、多模态光电器件和光谱分辨多重生物传感系统领域。
