Synergistic Spatial Confinement and Co-Reactant Acceleration Enable a Self-Enhanced Electrochemiluminescence–Electrochemical Dual-Mode Aptasensor for Acetamiprid

Abstract

A long electron transfer distance and significant energy dissipation could cause low electrochemiluminescence (ECL) efficiency during mass-transfer reactions. To address this, a synergistic strategy based on spatial confinement and coreactant acceleration was proposed to enhance the ECL performance. Via an in situ self-assembly method, the luminophore (Ru(dcbpy)32+) and the coreactant (NGQDs) were simultaneously encapsulated within the zirconium imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) to form Ru-NGQDs@ZIF-8 composites. The porous structure of ZIF-8 confines both components, thereby shortening the electron-transfer pathway and reducing energy loss. Meanwhile, ZIF-8 itself also acts as a coreaction accelerator, which significantly enhances the ECL efficiency. On this basis, a self-enhanced ECL-electrochemical (EC) dual-mode aptasensor was developed for acetamiprid detection, exhibiting a linear range of 1 pM-100 nM and a low detection limit of 0.046 pM. This work develops a simple and efficient one-step synthesis method for self-enhanced ECL composites, and the constructed dual-mode aptasensor exhibits promising applications for the detection of acetamiprid.