Since
aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence (AIECL) combined
the merits of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and electrochemiluminescence
(ECL), it has become a research hotspot recently. Herein, novel kinds
of functional metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with strong AIECL
were reported through doping tetraphenylethylene (TPE) into UiO-66.
Due to the porosity and highly ordered topological structure that
caused the confinement effect of MOFs, the molecular motion of TPE
was effectively limited within UiO-66, resulting in strong AIE. Meanwhile,
the large specific surface area and porous structure of UiO-66 allowed
TPE to react with coreactants more effectively, which was beneficial
to ECL. Thus, the TPE-functionalized UiO-66 (TPE-UiO-66) showed excellent
AIECL performance surprisingly. Inspired by this, a multiple convertible
ECL resonance energy transfer (ECL-RET) system was constructed through
a DNA Y structure that regulated the distance between the energy donor
(TPE-UiO-66) and different energy acceptors (gold nanoparticles and
Adriamycin). Furthermore, an ultrasensitive ECL biosensor for the
detection of Mucin 1 (MUC1) was developed through the introduction
of the novel ECL-RET system. In the presence of MUC1, the DNA Y structure
was constructed, keeping the gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) away from
TPE-UiO-66. Then, Adriamycin (Dox) could be embedded in the DNA Y
structure and act as an energy acceptor to receive the energy of TPE-UiO-66,
which made the biosensor produce a strong ECL response. As expected,
the developed ECL biosensor exhibited superior detection performance
for MUC1. This work provided a novel way to realize AIECL and board
the application of AIECL in analytical chemistry.