Aqueous electrochemiluminescence (ECL) in the second near-infrared biowindow (NIR-II, 900–1700 nm) was anticipated for ECL evolution and spectral multiplexing. Herein, aqueous and monochromatic ECL with a single emission peak beyond 900 nm was achieved by employing methionine (Met)-capped Au–Ag bimetallic nanoclusters (BNCs) as luminophores and triethanolamine (TEOA) as a coreactant. The Met-capped Au–Ag BNCs with surface-defect-induced PL around 756 nm were water-soluble and synthesized via doping Met-capped Au NCs with Ag in a doping-in-growth way. By extensively exploiting the red-shifting nature of surface-defect-induced ECL to PL and the synergetic-effect-enhanced ECL of BNCs, physically surface-confined Au–Ag BNCs exhibited efficient NIR-II ECL around 906 nm in aqueous medium. A spectrum-based NIR-II ECL immunoassay around 915 nm was also achieved by immobilizing the Au–Ag BNCs onto an electrode surface via forming a sandwich immunocomplex, which could selectively determine CA125 from 5 × 10–4 to 1 U/mL with a detection limit of 5 × 10–5 U/mL (S/N = 3). The combined strategy of surface-defect-induced ECL and synergetic-effect-enhanced ECL would enable promising biorelated application of NIR-II ECL.

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of low triggering potential is strongly anticipated for ECL assays with less inherent electrochemical interference and improved long-term stability of the working electrode. Herein, effects of the thiol capping agents and the states of luminophores, i.e., the thiol-capped CuInS 2 @ZnS nanocrystals

Screening toxic-element-free and biocompatible electrochemiluminophores was crucial for electrochemiluminescence (ECL) evolution. Herein, L-glutathione (GSH)-capped Ag−Ga−In−S (AGIS) nanocrystals (NCs) were prepared by doping Ag−In−S (AIS) NCs in a doping-in-growth way and utilized as a model for both ECL modulating and developing multinary NC-based electrochemiluminophores with enhanced ECL performance than trinary NCs. AGIS NCs not only primarily preserved the morphology, size, phase structure, and water monodisperse characteristics of AIS NCs with broadened band gap but also demonstrated obviously enhanced oxidative-reduction ECL than AIS NCs. Importantly, ECL of AGIS NCs was located at the nearinfrared region with a maximum emission wavelength of 744 nm and could be utilized for an ECL immunoassay with human prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a model, which exhibited a linearity range from 0.05 pg/mL to 1.0 ng/mL and a low limit of detection of 0.01 pg/mL (S/N = 3). This work provided a promising alternative to the traditional binary NCs for developing toxicelement-free and biocompatible electrochemiluminophores with efficient near-infrared ECL.

The overwhelming majority of commercially available chemiluminescence (CL) assays are conducted in the eye-visible region. Herein, a near-infrared (NIR) aqueous CL strategy was proposed with CuInS2@ZnS nanocrystals (CIS@ZnS NCs) as emitters. Hydrazine hydrate (N2H4·H2O) could inject electrons into the conduction band of the CIS@ZnS NCs and simultaneously transformed to the intermediate radical N2H3 •. N2H3 • reduced dissolved oxygen (O2) to O2 –•, while the O2 –• could inject holes into the valence band of the CIS@ZnS NCs. The recombination of electrons and holes at Cu+ defects in CIS@ZnS NCs eventually yielded efficient NIR CL at around 824.1 nm, which is the longest waveband for NCs CL to the best of our knowledge. The NIR CL could be conveniently performed in the neutral aqueous medium (pH 7.0) with a quantum yield of 0.0155 Einstein/mol and was successfully employed for constructing a signal-off CL biosensor with ascorbic acid as the analyte as well as a signal-on CL biosensor for determining ascorbate oxidase, which indicates that this NIR CL system has a promising potential for bioassays in diverse ways.

The photoluminescence, electroluminescence, and electrochemiluminescence from nanocrystals (NCs) have been extensively exploited for both fundamental and applied investigation over two decades, while the understanding of chemiluminescence (CL) from NCs is still far from clear by now. Herein, a general route for triggering CL from NC luminophore is proposed by extensively exploiting the charge transfer between n-type NCs and oxidants. Oxidants, such as K2S2O8, H2O2, KMnO4, and NaClO, can chemically inject the hole onto the valence band (VB) of methionine-capped n-type AuNCs (Met@AuNCs) and enable the occurrence of efficient radiative-charge-recombination between the chemically injected exogenous VB hole and the pre-existed endogenous conduction band (CB) electron, which eventually results in single-color and defect-involved CL with the maximum emission wavelength around 824 nm. The CL of Met@AuNCs/oxidant is qualified for ultrasensitive CL immunoassay in a similar procedure to the biotin–avidin and magnetic separation involved commercial CL immunoassay and exhibits acceptable performance for linearly determining carcinoembryonic antigen from 50 pg/mL to 100 ng/mL with a limit of detection of 10 pg/mL (S/N = 3). This strategy provides a general route to develop nanoparticulate CL luminophores and might eventually enable CL multiplexing assay via extensively exploiting the CL of different wavebands.

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is conventionally generated in either an annihilation or a coreactant route, and the overwhelming majority of ECL research is conducted in the coreactant route via oxidizing or reducing the coexisting coreactant and luminophore. The coreacant-free ECL generated via merely oxidizing the luminophore would break through the ceiling of coreactant ECL via excluding the detrimental effects of exogenous coreactant and dissolved oxygen. Herein, by exploiting the rich-electron nature of n-type nanocrystals (NCs), coreacant-free ECL is achieved via merely oxidizing 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) and mercaptosuccinic acid (MSA) capped InP/ZnS NCs, i.e., InP/ZnS MPA-MSA . The electron-rich InP/ZnS MPA-MSA can be electrochemically injected with holes via two oxidative processes at around +0.75 and +1.37 V (vs Ag/AgCl), respectively, and the exogenous hole can directly combine the conduction band (CB) electron of InP/ZnS MPA-MSA , resulting in two coreactant-free ECL processes without employing any exogenous coreactant. The deprotonation process for the carboxyl group of the capping agents can provide a negatively charged surface to InP/ZnS MPA-MSA and enhance the coreactant-free ECL. The hole-injecting process at +1.37 is much stronger than that at +0.75 V and eventually enables an ∼2000-fold enhanced ECL at +1.37 V than that at +0.75 V. The ECL at +1.37 V can be utilized for coreactant-free ECL immunoassay with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as analyte, which exhibits an acceptable linear response from 5 pg•mL −1 to 1 ng•mL −1 with a limit of detection of 0.3 pg•mL −1 . The coreactant-free ECL route would provide an alternative to both annihilation and coreactant routes, simplify the ECL assay procedure and deepening the ECL mechanism investigations.

Redox mediators can facilitate the electrochemical communication between targets and electrodes for material characterization and investigation. To provide an alternative to the chemical-based redox mediators, herein, we present a nanoparticle-based redox mediator, i.e., the trisodium citrates (TSC)-capped triangular silver nanoplates (Tri-Ag-NPTSC), which demonstrates an efficient oxidative process at around 0.13 V (vs Ag/AgCl) with acceptable redox reversibility by exploiting the interaction between the carbonyl group of TSC and the Ag element of Tri-Ag-NPTSC. The TSC of Tri-Ag-NPs can be selectively replaced by thiols and enable the obtained Tri-Ag-NPTSC‑thiol with changed electrochemical redox response, which could be utilized to determine various thiols at 0.13 V, a much lowered oxidative potential than traditional redox mediators, with a similar linear response range, response slope, and limit of detection (LOD). This work proposes a surface-engineering approach to design and develop electrochemical redox probes using Ag nanoparticles with particular morphology, indicating that the interaction between the carbonyl group and Ag nanoparticles might be extended to sensing application beyond the surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

All commercial chemiluminescence (CL) assays are conducted with either glow or flash CL of eye-visible waveband from chemical luminophores. Herein, glow and flash, as well as waveband adjustable CL from the same nanoparticle luminophore of thiol-capped CuInS2@ZnS nanocrystals (CIS@ZnS-Thiol), are proposed via extensively exploiting the differed redox nature of CL triggering reagents. Taking thiosalicylic acid (TSA) as the model thiol-capping agent, the electron-injection-initiated charge transfer between CIS@ZnS-TSA and reductant can bring out efficient glow CL while the hole-injection-initiated charge transfer between CIS@ZnS-TSA and oxidant can give off obvious flash CL under optimum conditions. The maximum emission wavelength for CL of CIS@ZnS-TSA is adjustable from 730 nm to 823 nm via employing different triggering agents. Promisingly, the coexistent reductant of N2H4·H2O and oxidant of H2O2 can be employed as dual triggering reagents to trigger eye-visible and highly efficient flash CL from CIS@ZnS-TSA. The maximum emission intensity for flash CL of CIS@ZnS-TSA/N2H4–H2O2 is 101-fold greater than the glow CL of CIS@ZnS-TSA/N2H4 and 22-fold greater than the flash CL of CIS@ZnS-TSA/H2O2, respectively. The flash CL from CIS@ZnS-TSA/N2H4–H2O2 is qualified for highly sensitive and selective CL immunoassay in a commercialized typical procedure with the entire operating process manually terminated within 35 min.