Facile fabrication and application of an innovative self-enhanced luminophore with outstanding electrochemiluminescence properties

Self-enhanced electrochemiluminescence (ECL) technology has raised special concern on analytical performance owing to its accurate measurement. In this study, an innovative self-enhanced luminophore was synthesized utilizing nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) as co-reactant of Ru(bpy)(3)(2+)-doped silica nanoparticles (RuDS NPs). Because both RuDS NPs and NGQDs exhibited negative charge, the RuDS NPs were firstly modified with amino groups to produce positively charged NH2-RuDS NPs, which can be further successfully combined with negatively charged NGQDs via electrostatic interaction. Compared with the mixture of NH2-RuDS NPs and NGQDs, the NH2-RuDS@NGQDs luminophore expressed superior ECL performance due to its short electron transfer distance and low energy loss. Based on the quenching effect between the excited state of NH2-RuDS@NGQDs luminophore and the oxidation form of carbaryl, a sensitive ECL sensor was successfully constructed for carbaryl quantification. The proposed self-enhanced ECL sensor exhibited a relatively wider linear range of 1.0 x 10(-13) - 1.0 x 10(-4) g mL(-1) and a lower detection limit of 2.2 x 10(-15) g mL(-1) in compassion with most reported methods. Therefore, the innovative self-enhanced NH2 -RuDS@NGQDs luminophore with excellent performance may expand great potential in bioanalysis. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.