Dual Intramolecular Electron Transfer for In Situ Coreactant-Embedded Electrochemiluminescence Microimaging of Membrane Protein

The demand for transporting coreactant to emitter and short lifetime of the radicals in electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emission inhibit greatly its application in cytosensing and microscopic imaging. Herein we designed a dual intramolecular electron transfer strategy and tertiary amine conjugated polymer dots (TEA-Pdots) to develop a coreactant-embedded ECL mechanism and microimaging system. The TEA-Pdots could produce ECL emission at +1.2 V without need of coreactant in test solution. The superstructure and intramolecular electron transfer led to unprecedented ECL strength, which was 132 and 45 times stronger than those from the mixture of Pdots with TEA at equivalent and 62.5 times higher amounts, respectively. The ECL efficiency was even higher than that of typical [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+) system. Therefore, this strategy and coreactant-embedded ECL system could be used for in situ ECL microimaging of membrane protein on single living cells without additional permeable treatment for transporting coreactant. The feasibility and validity were demonstrated by evaluating the specific protein expression on cell surface. This work opens new avenues for ECL applications in single cell analysis and dynamic study of biological events.

Automated summary

This study developed a new strategy and system using TEA-Pdots to embed coreactants in the ECL mechanism, leading to significantly improved ECL emission strength. The system can be used for in situ ECL microimaging on single living cells without the need for additional permeable treatment.