Highly integrated and compact transduction strategy for multidimensional sensing: Near infrared light mediated transmission of optical, electrical and visual signals for ovarian cancer marker assay

Abstract

Mediating effective signal conversion strategies through intermediate parameters to develop easily integrated smart sensing platforms remains a challenge. Herein, a compact and miniaturized optical, electrical and visual sensor was constructed through reasonably designing and assembling three sub-sensors, which can simultaneously and independently feedback signal changes brought by near-infrared (NIR) light. Concretely, the thermal effect induced by multifunctional V₂C MQDs@polyaniline@NiFe₂O₄ with excellent photothermal performance was employed to regulate the signal output of luminescence, color and resistance in multilayer sensing chip, which the chip was formed by attaching thermochromic paper and thermoelectric module layer-by-layer to the nonconductive backside of transparent indium tin oxide electrode modified with electrochemiluminescent (ECL) signal probe. Additionally, the pleasant luminescent property of V₂C MQDs and outstanding electrocatalytic ability of NiFe₂O₄ endowed this probe with another role in providing highly sensitive ECL signal transduction. As a result, the multifunctional probe could convert light into thermal energy under the NIR light irradiation, realizing temperature enhanced ECL response, temperature initiated chameleon paper (CoCl₂·6H₂O) with thermochromic behavior for intuitive temperature visualization output and thermoelectrical module for high-resolution resistance analysis. Ultimately, the photomodulated multimode sensing platform realized sensitive lipolysis stimulated lipoprotein receptor detection with a wide linear range from 10⁻⁶ to 10 ng/mL, excellent selectivity, good stability and high accuracy. The successful application of intermediate parameter driving and crosstalk-free multidimensional signal processing, offering an innovative regulating strategy for promoting the development of multifunctional signal conversion devices.