Issue 34, 2023

Site-selective heat boosting electrochemiluminescence for single cell imaging

Abstract

In operando visualization of local electrochemical reactions provides mechanical insights into the dynamic transport of interfacial charge and reactant/product. Electrochemiluminescence is a crossover technique that quantitatively determines Faraday current and mass transport in a straightforward manner. However, the sensitivity is hindered by the low collision efficiency of radicals and side reactions at high voltage. Here, we report a site-selective heat boosting electrochemiluminescence microscopy. By generating a micron-scale heat point in situ at the electrode–solution interface, we achieved an enhancement of luminescence intensity up to 63 times, along with an advance of 0.2 V in applied voltage. Experimental results and finite element simulation demonstrate that the fundamental reasons are accelerated reaction rate and thermal convection via a photothermal effect. The concentrated electrochemiluminescence not only boosts the contrast of single cells by 20.54 times but also enables the site-selective cell-by-cell analysis of the heterogeneous membrane protein abundance. This electrochemical visualization method has great potential in the highly sensitive and selective analysis of local electron transfer events.

Graphical abstract: Site-selective heat boosting electrochemiluminescence for single cell imaging

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
05 Maijs 2023
Accepted
02 Aug. 2023
First published
02 Aug. 2023
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., 2023,14, 9074-9085

Site-selective heat boosting electrochemiluminescence for single cell imaging

X. Gou, Y. Zhang, Z. Xing, C. Ma, C. Mao and J. Zhu, Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 9074 DOI: 10.1039/D3SC02298F

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