Issue 16, 2019

Near-infrared aggregation-induced enhanced electrochemiluminescence from tetraphenylethylene nanocrystals: a new generation of ECL emitters

Abstract

Herein, we observed near-infrared electrochemiluminescence (NIR ECL) emission from tetraphenylethylene nanocrystals (TPE NCs), which exhibit high ECL efficiency and excellent biocompatibility compared with the current NIR ECL emitters (such as semiconductor quantum dots and metal nanoclusters). The strong ECL signal of TPE NCs originates from the aggregation-induced enhanced ECL emission via improvement of the efficiency of electron hole recombination and suppression of the nonradiative transition. Impressively, the TPE NCs exhibit an enormous red-shifted ECL emission (678 nm) relative to the blue-light photoluminescence (PL) emission (440 nm). Compared to fluorescence imaging which is limited by photobleaching and autofluorescence, the NIR ECL emission of TPE NCs is highly favorable to diminish background interference over visible light and realize deeper tissue penetration, which expands the ECL emission of organic nanomaterials to the NIR region for broader biological applications.

Graphical abstract: Near-infrared aggregation-induced enhanced electrochemiluminescence from tetraphenylethylene nanocrystals: a new generation of ECL emitters

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
07 1 2019
Accepted
11 3 2019
First published
15 3 2019
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 4497-4501

Near-infrared aggregation-induced enhanced electrochemiluminescence from tetraphenylethylene nanocrystals: a new generation of ECL emitters

J. Liu, J. Zhang, Z. Tang, Y. Zhuo, Y. Chai and R. Yuan, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 4497 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC00084D

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