Nanoconfinement-Enhanced Aggregation-Induced Electrochemiluminescence for Smartphone-Adopted Imaging Analysis of cTnI

Abstract

The domain-limited catalytic enhancement has opened novel avenues for the advancement of highly efficient aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence (AIECL). Herein, a novel electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensing platform is constructed through the in situ encapsulation of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) molecules, tetraphenylethylene, within metal-organic frameworks (NH₂-MIL-88). These frameworks are uniquely enriched with atomically dispersed active sites that serve as nanoconfined co-reactant accelerators. This innovative design leads to the creation of an integrated AIE nanoconfinement reactor. Within this reactor, the co-reactant accelerators catalyze co-reactants into reactive species (RS) in situ, facilitating direct interaction with AIE molecules in a spatially confined composite. Density functional theory calculations and in situ electrochemical electron paramagnetic resonance demonstrate that the ECL enhancement is attributed to the localized amplification, where the nanoconfined space formed by coordination self-assembly alters the activation energy barriers and improves the absorption capacity for catalyzing K₂S₂O₈ into SO₄^·- and OH^·−. Additionally, by utilizing MATLAB-mediated image enhancement technology and deep learning algorithms, a smartphone-adopted self-reporting AIECL imaging system is designed to achieve an accurate and intelligent analysis of cardiac troponin I (cTnI). This innovative method presents an advanced strategy to enhance local RS concentrations via nanoconfinement catalysis. The developed smartphone-adopted AIECL imaging system offers a facile screening method for cTnI monitoring.