Abstract
The electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of methionine stabilized gold nanoclusters (Met-AuNCs) is presented. The Met-AuNCs were used to modify a glassy carbon electrode (Met-AuNC/GCE) which is shown to exhibit a stable and strong cathodic ECL signal (at −1.86 V) when using potassium peroxodisulfate (K2S2O8) as the coreactant in aqueous solution of pH 7.4. Compared to a GCE modified with BSA-AuNCs, the ECL intensity of Met-AuNCs is 5-fold enhanced. The possible ECL reaction mechanism of the ECL system was studied, and a method for the determination of dopamine (DA) was worked out. The modified GCE has a linear response in the 0.1 to 4 μM DA concentration range, with a detection limit of 32 nM (at an S/N ratio of 3). The method was applied to the determination of DA released by PC12 cells. In our perception, the Met-AuNC/GCE provides a viable new tool in ECL based bioanalysis that also paves new routes to the design and application of new sensors.
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The electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor based on methionine stabilized gold nanocluster modified glassy carbon electrode (Met-AuNC/GCE) using potassium peroxodisulfate (K2S2O8) as the coreactant in aqueous solution was fabricated for the highly sensitive detection of dopamine (DA) released by cells.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21175023, 21405015), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0618), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2014 J05092, 2016Y9054), and the Medical Elite Cultivation Program of Fujian (2013-ZQN-ZD-25).