Bifunctional TiO2 Nanoflower-Induced H4TCBPE Aggregation Enhanced Electrochemiluminescence for an Ultrasensitive Assay of Organophosphorus

In this work, the aggregation-induced emission ligand 1,1,2,2-tetra-(4-carboxylbiphenyl)-ethylene (H4TCBPE) was rigidified in the Ti-O network to form novel electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emitter H4TCBPE-TiO2 nanospheres, which acted as an effective ECL emitter to construct an on-off ECL biosensor for ultrasensitive detection of malathion (Mal).H4TCBPE-TiO2 exhibited excellent ECL responses due to the Ti-O network that can restrict the intramolecular free motions within H4TCBPE and then reduce the nonradiative relaxation. Moreover, TiO2 can act as an ECL co-reaction accelerator to promote the generation of sulfate radical anion (SO4 center dot-), which interacts with H4TCBPE in the Ti-O network to produce enhanced ECL response. In the presence of Mal, numerous ligated probes (probe 1 to probe 2, P1-P2) were formed and released by copper-free click nucleic acid ligation reaction, which then hybridized with hairpin probe 1 (H1)-modified H4TCBPE-TiO2-based electrode surface. The P1-P2 probes can initiate the target-assisted terminal deoxynucleoside transferase (TdTase) extended reaction to produce long tails of deoxyadenine with abundant biotin, which can load numerous streptavidin-functionalized ferrocenedicarboxylic acid polymer (SA-PFc), causing quenching of the ECL signal. Thus, the ultrasensitive ECL biosensor based onH(4)TCBPE-TiO2 ECL emitter and click chemistry-actuated TdTase amplification strategy presents a desirable range from 0.001 to 100 ng/mL and a detection limit low to 9.9 fg/mL. Overall, this work has paved an avenue for the development of novel ECL emitters, which has opened up new prospects for ECL biosensing.

Automated summary

In this study, the rigidified H4TCBPE-TiO2 nanospheres were developed as an effective ECL emitter for the construction of an on-off ECL biosensor. The ECL response of H4TCBPE-TiO2 was enhanced by the Ti-O network and the presence of TiO2 as an ECL co-reaction accelerator. The ultrasensitive ECL biosensor exhibited a desirable detection range and a low detection limit for Mal.