Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is a powerful transduction technique with a leading role in the biosensing field due to its high sensitivity and low background signal. Although the intrinsic ...analytical strength of ECL depends critically on the overall efficiency of the mechanisms of its generation, studies aimed at enhancing the ECL signal have mostly focused on the investigation of materials, either luminophores or coreactants, while fundamental mechanistic studies are relatively scarce. Here, we discover an unexpected but highly efficient mechanistic path for ECL generation close to the electrode surface (signal enhancement, 128%) using an innovative combination of ECL imaging techniques and electrochemical mapping of radical generation. Our findings, which are also supported by quantum chemical calculations and spin trapping methods, led to the identification of a family of alternative branched amine coreactants, which raises the analytical strength of ECL well beyond that of present state-of-the-art immunoassays, thus creating potential ECL applications in ultrasensitive bioanalysis.
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•Coupling nanoparticles with ECL provides unprecedented sensitivity.•Over 80% of the articles in this field has been published in the last 5 years.•The best nanomaterials for ECL ...signal amplification are here discussed.•The understanding of the mechanisms of ECL is fundamental for higher sensitivities.
The coupling of nanomaterials, and nanoparticles in particular, with one of the most powerful transduction techniques, electrochemiluminescence (ECL), i.e., chemiluminescence triggered by electrochemical reactions at electrodes, has recently provided sensing tools with unprecedented sensitivity limits. This review aims to give an overview of the state of the art in the field over the last 5 years, i.e., a time span covering over 80% of the scientific production in this context. The results herein discussed would demonstrate that the use of nanoparticles in the ECL technique represents one of the most interesting research lines for the development of ultrasensitive analytical tools, offering an insight to recognize and select the best nanomaterials for ECL signal amplification, with particular emphasis in biosensing.
The combination of highly sensitive techniques such as electrochemiluminescence (ECL) with nanotechnology sparked new analytical applications, in particular for immunoassay‐based detection systems. ...In this context, nanomaterials, particularly dye‐doped silica nanoparticles (DDSNPs) are of high interest, since they can offer several advantages in terms of sensitivity and performance. In this work we synthesized two sets of monodispersed and biotinylated Ru(bpy)32+‐doped silica nanoparticles, named bio‐Triton@RuNP and bio‐Igepal@RuNP, obtained following the reverse microemulsion method using two different types of nonionic surfactants. Controlling the synthetic procedures, we were able to obtain nanoparticles (NPs) offering highly intense signal, using tri‐n‐propylamine (TPrA) as coreactant, with bio‐Triton@RuNps being more efficient than bio‐Igepal@RuNP.
Using silica nanoparticles, a 8.5‐fold higher ECL intensity was achieved with respect to a system mimicking a commercial immuno‐sensing system, benefiting from the deep knowledge acquired by combining ECL with nanostructures.
Considering the depletion of fossil-fuel reserves and their negative environmental impact, new energy schemes must point towards alternative ecological processes. Efficient hydrogen evolution from ...water is one promising route towards a renewable energy economy and sustainable development. Here we show a tridimensional electrocatalytic interface, featuring a hierarchical, co-axial arrangement of a palladium/titanium dioxide layer on functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The resulting morphology leads to a merging of the conductive nanocarbon core with the active inorganic phase. A mechanistic synergy is envisioned by a cascade of catalytic events promoting water dissociation, hydride formation and hydrogen evolution. The nanohybrid exhibits a performance exceeding that of state-of-the-art electrocatalysts (turnover frequency of 15000 H
per hour at 50 mV overpotential). The Tafel slope of ∼130 mV per decade points to a rate-determining step comprised of water dissociation and formation of hydride. Comparative activities of the isolated components or their physical mixtures demonstrate that the good performance evolves from the synergistic hierarchical structure.
Chiral electroanalysis could be regarded as the highest recognition degree in electrochemical sensing, implying the ability to discriminate between specular images of an electroactive molecule, ...particularly in terms of significant peak potential difference. A groundbreaking strategy was recently proposed, based on the use of "inherently chiral" molecular selectors, with chirality and key functional properties originating from the same structural element. Large differences in peak potentials have been observed for the enantiomers of different chiral molecules, also of applicative interest, using different selectors, all of them based on atropisomeric biheteroaromatic scaffolds of axial stereogenicity. However, helicene systems also provide inherently chiral building blocks with attractive features. In this paper the enantiodiscrimination performances of enantiopure inherently chiral films obtained by electrooxidation of a thiahelicene monomer with helicoidal stereogenicity are presented for the first time. The outstanding potentialities of this novel approach are evaluated towards chiral probes with different chemical nature and bulkiness, in comparison with a representative case of the so far exploited class of inherently chiral selectors with axial stereogenicity. It is also verified that the high enantiodiscrimination ability holds as well for electron spins, as for atropisomeric selectors.
Enantiopure inherently chiral films with helicoidal stereogenicity of outstanding enantiodiscrimination potentialities for chiral redox probes and as spin filters.
Water is the renewable, bulk chemical that nature uses to enable carbohydrate production from carbon dioxide. The dream goal of energy research is to transpose this incredibly efficient process and ...make an artificial device whereby the catalytic splitting of water is finalized to give a continuous production of oxygen and hydrogen. Success in this task would guarantee the generation of hydrogen as a carbon-free fuel to satisfy our energy demands at no environmental cost. Here we show that very efficient and stable nanostructured, oxygen-evolving anodes are obtained by the assembly of an oxygen-evolving polyoxometalate cluster (a totally inorganic ruthenium catalyst) with a conducting bed of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Our bioinspired electrode addresses the one major challenge of artificial photosynthesis, namely efficient water oxidation, which brings us closer to being able to power the planet with carbon-free fuels.
Five heterocyclic derivatives were synthesized by functionalization of a flavone nucleus with an aminophenoxy moiety. Their cytotoxicity was investigated in vitro in two models of human non-small ...cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells (A549 and NCI-H1975) by using MTT assay and the results compared to those obtained in healthy fibroblasts as a non-malignant cell model. One of the aminophenoxy flavone derivatives (
) was found to be effective at low micromolar concentrations in both lung cancer cell lines with a higher selective index (SI). Flow cytometric analyses showed that
induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase through the up-regulation of p21 expression. Therefore, the aminophenoxy flavone-based compounds may be promising cancer-selective agents and could serve as a base for further research into the design of flavone-based anticancer drugs.
Three recently synthesized neutral dinuclear carbonyl manganese complexes with the pyridazine bridging ligand, of general formula Mn2(μ-ER)2(CO)6(μ-pydz) (pydz = pyridazine; E = O or S; R = methyl or ...phenyl), have been investigated by cyclic voltammetry in dimethylformamide and acetonitrile both under an inert argon atmosphere and in the presence of carbon dioxide. This family of Mn(I) compounds behaves interestingly at negative potentials in the presence of CO2. Based on this behavior, which is herein discussed, a rather efficient catalytic mechanism for the CO2 reduction reaction toward the generation of CO has been hypothesized.
The presence of non-hexagonal rings in the honeycomb carbon arrangement of graphene produces rippled graphene layers with valuable chemical and physical properties. In principle, a bottom-up approach ...to introducing distortion from planarity of a graphene sheet can be achieved by careful insertion of curved polyaromatic hydrocarbons during the growth of the lattice. Corannulene, the archetype of such non-planar polyaromatic hydrocarbons, can act as an ideal wrinkling motif in 2D carbon nanostructures. Herein we report an electrochemical bottom-up method to obtain egg-box shaped nanographene structures through a polycondensation of corannulene that produces a new conducting layered material. Characterization of this new polymeric material by electrochemistry, spectroscopy, electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), scanning probe microscopy, and laser desorption-ionization time of flight mass spectrometry provides strong evidence that the anodic polymerization of corannulene, combined with electrochemically induced oxidative cyclodehydrogenations (Scholl reactions), leads to polycorannulene with a wavy graphene-like structure.
A bottom-up synthesis of wavy graphene structures obtained through an anodic polymerization process, combined with an electrochemically triggered oxidative cyclodehydrogenation, of the bowl-shaped polyaromatic hydrocarbon corannulene.
Exploration of novel biaryls consisting of two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) units can be an important strategy toward further developments of organic materials with unique properties. In ...this study, 5,5′‐bibenzorstpentaphene (BBPP) with two benzorstpentaphene (BPP) units is synthesized in an efficient and versatile approach, and its structure is unambiguously elucidated by X‐ray crystallography. BBPP exhibits axial chirality, and the (M)‐ and (P)‐enantiomers are resolved by chiral high‐performance liquid chromatography and studied by circular dichroism spectroscopy. These enantiomers have a relatively high isomerization barrier of 43.6 kcal mol−1 calculated by density functional theory. The monomer BPP and dimer BBPP are characterized by UV‐vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. The results indicate that both BPP and BBPP fluoresce from a formally dark S1 electronic state that is enabled by Herzberg–Teller intensity borrowing from a neighboring bright S2 state. While BPP exhibits a relatively low photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), BBPP exhibits a significantly enhanced PLQY due to a greater S2 intensity borrowing. Moreover, symmetry‐breaking charge transfer in BBPP is demonstrated by spectroscopic investigations in solvents of different polarity. This suggests high potential for singlet fission in such π‐extended biaryls through appropriate molecular design.
5,5′‐Bibenzorstpentaphene (BBPP) is synthesized and characterized in comparison to benzorstpentaphene (BPP) derivatives. BBPP displays stable axial chirality and can be resolved by chiral high‐performance liquid chromatography. Notably, BBPP demonstrates symmetry‐breaking charge transfer as confirmed by detailed spectroscopic investigations, exhibiting high potential of such π‐extended biaryls for singlet fission.
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