Light-Emitting Diodes as Wireless Optical Transducers of Chemical Information

Abstract

Optical readouts have gained a considerable attention due to their high spatial resolution, high signal to noise ratio and fast response times. Among these, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as optical transducers enable to encode chemical information in the current passing through the diode and as a consequence in its light emission amplitude. Recently, the synergy between the principle of bipolar electrochemistry and the optical and electric advantages of LEDs have been explored, in order to develop novel and straightforward approaches to visualize chemical information. This has been increasingly exploited in multiple applications ranging from electroanalysis to chiral recognition, dynamic systems, and multimodal imaging. This review aims to highlight the use of endogenous (thermodynamically spontaneous) and exogenous (externally driven) bipolar electrochemistry for the design of wireless optical readouts based on the operating principle of LEDs.