Gold nanocluster-confined covalent organic frameworks as bifunctional probes for electrochemiluminescence and colorimetric dual-response sensing of Pb2

Libo Li; Wanlin Zhao; Yan Wang; Xiaohong Liu; Panao Jiang; Lijun Luo; Xiaoya Bi; Xiangle Meng; Qijian Niu; Xiaofeng Wu; Tianyan You

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131558

Gold nanocluster-confined covalent organic frameworks as bifunctional probes for electrochemiluminescence and colorimetric dual-response sensing of Pb²

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Sep 5:457:131558. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131558. Epub 2023 May 2.

Authors

Libo Li¹, Wanlin Zhao¹, Yan Wang¹, Xiaohong Liu¹, Panao Jiang¹, Lijun Luo¹, Xiaoya Bi¹, Xiangle Meng¹, Qijian Niu¹, Xiaofeng Wu², Tianyan You³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment and Technology, Ministry of Education, School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, Jilin Provincial International Cooperation Key Laboratory of Advanced Inorganic Solid Functional Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Qianjin Street 2699, Changchun 130012, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment and Technology, Ministry of Education, School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China. Electronic address: youty@ujs.edu.cn.

PMID: 37269568
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131558

Abstract

The development of bifunctional signal probes based on a single component is highly desirable for sensitive and simple dual-mode detection of Pb²⁺. Here, novel gold nanocluster-confined covalent organic frameworks (AuNCs@COFs) were fabricated as a bisignal generator to enable electrochemiluminescence (ECL) and colorimetric dual-response sensing. AuNCs with both intrinsic ECL and peroxidase-like activity were confined into the ultrasmall pores of the COFs via an in situ growth method. On the one hand, the space-confinement effect of the COFs closed the ligand motion-induced nonradiative transition channels of the AuNCs. As a result, the AuNCs@COFs exhibited a 3.3-fold enhancement in anodic ECL efficiency compared to the solid-state aggregated AuNCs using triethylamine as the coreactant. On the other hand, due to the outstanding spatial dispersibility of the AuNCs in the structurally ordered COFs, a high density of active catalytic sites and accelerated electron transfer were obtained, leading to the promotion of the enzyme-like catalytic capacity of the composite. To validate its practical applicability, a Pb²⁺-triggered dual-response sensing system was proposed based on the aptamer-regulated ECL and peroxidase-like activity of the AuNCs@COFs. Sensitive determinations down to 7.9 pM for the ECL mode and 0.56 nM for the colorimetric mode were obtained. This work provides an approach for designing single element-based bifunctional signal probes for dual-mode detection of Pb²⁺.

Keywords: Colorimetric; Covalent organic frameworks; Electrochemiluminescence; Gold nanoclusters; Pb(2+).