Electrochemiluminescence microscopy: From single objects to living cells

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is a light-emitting phenome-non triggered by electrochemistry. The resulting optical signal enables spatiotemporal resolution of the luminescent signal that can be imaged with high accuracy. The field of ECL is evolving rapidly from an analytical method widely applied in biosensing to a novel microscopy technique. The efficient generation of ECL depends on the electrode materials, the luminophore/coreactant systems, and experimental configurations, focusing research on improving these parameters. Nowadays, ECL enables the analysis of transient events and micro/nanometric objects, sur-face boundaries, interfaces, and physical phenomena, as well as catalytic and biological processes. Since ECL microscopy offers many novel applications, this article will describe first the context and then the most recent advances in ECL imaging of single objects and living cells or subcellular structures.

Automated summary

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is a light-emitting phenomenon triggered by electrochemistry, which enables high-precision imaging of luminescent signals. The field of ECL is rapidly evolving from an analytical method widely used in biosensing to a novel microscopy technique. Improving electrode materials, luminophore/coreactant systems, and experimental configurations are the main focus of research.