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

Abstract 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)32+-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 × 10−13 - 1.0 × 10-4 g mL-1 and a lower detection limit of 2.2 × 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.