Aggregation-induced emission materials-based Electrochemiluminescence emitters for sensing applications: Progress, challenges and perspectives

Abstract

Design and development of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensors with high sensitivity and selectivity for analytes quantitative detection plays an important role in monitoring food/environmental safety and preserving human health. Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) materials feature higher luminescence in aggregated state than in dissolved state and hence are considered as ideal emitters to develop high-performance ECL sensors. Enlightened by this, researchers around the world have made considerable efforts to devise and synthesize AIE materials with unique ECL performance for reliably analyzing disease biomarkers and toxic substances with high sensitivity. In this review, we outline the recent advances on devise and preparation of AIE materials with different components exhibiting unique ECL property, and development of AIE materials-based ECL sensors for sensitive detection of nucleic acids, proteins, amino acids, metal ions, anions, etc. Further, the confronting hurdles and perspectives on the future of such ECL sensors were briefly discussed to give the researchers a little inspiration for developing higher-performance sensors. Moreover, we hope this overview will not only facilitate the huge progress of AIE materials-based ECL sensors, but also boost the commercial application in real-life scenarios in the future, truly serving the general public.