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An efficient aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescent immunosensor by using TiO2 nanoparticles as coreaction accelerator and energy donor for aflatoxin B1 detection

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Abstract

Herein, we fabricated a label-free ECL immunosensor for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) detection. In this system, a small organic aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence luminophore, 2,5-di-tetraphenylethylene-ylthiazolo [5,4-d] thiazole, was designed, named TPETTZ. Polyaniline-wrapped TiO2 nanoparticles (PANI/TiO2 NPs) complex was synthesized through one-step in situ oxidation polymerization of aniline, and performed excellent electrical conductivity and abundant amino groups. As an ECL accelerator, TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) promoted the oxidation of tri-n-propylamine (TPA) to generate more TPA•; in addition, it also acted as a donor to improve the ECL intensity of TPETTZ (acceptor) through electrochemiluminescence resonance energy transfer (ECL-RET). Encouraged by the above, under the existence of TPA, TPETTZ displayed a strong and continuously stable ECLanode signal due to the introduction of PANI/TiO2 NPs. Therefore, the immunosensor was constructed for AFB1 detection based on the quenching effect of target on the ECL signal, and a linearly decreasing ECL signal was obtained as the increasement of AFB1 in the range of 75 fg/mL to 100 ng/mL, with a lower detection limit of 27.5 fg/mL. Moreover, the as-prepared sensing platform performed a satisfactory anti-interference, stability, and reproducibility, and appeared a good accuracy in walnut sample analysis, presenting a promising application in the future.

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Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful for the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21705084) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province of China (No. ZR2017BB074, No. ZR2018PB015), National Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates (No. S202010431027), Qilu University of Technology of Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates (No. xj201910431125), the Innovation Team of Jinan City (2018GXRC004), and Special Funds for Taishan Scholars Project.

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  1. Xiaoyi Lv and Qiong Hu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biobased Material and Green Papermaking, School of Food Science and Engineering, Qilu University of Technology, Shandong Academy of Sciences, Jinan, 250353, Shandong, China

    Xiaoyi Lv, Tian Miao, YanPing Li, Bo Cui & Yishan Fang

  2. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Agricultural Resources Chemistry and Biotechnology, College of Chemistry and Food Science, Yulin Normal University, Yulin, 537000, Guangxi, China

    Qiong Hu

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  1. Xiaoyi Lv
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Lv, X., Hu, Q., Miao, T. et al. An efficient aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescent immunosensor by using TiO2 nanoparticles as coreaction accelerator and energy donor for aflatoxin B1 detection. Anal Bioanal Chem 414, 4837–4847 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-04106-3

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