A novel “dual-potential” ratiometric electrochemiluminescence DNA sensor based on enhancing and quenching effect by G-quadruplex / hemin and Au-Luminol bifunctional nanoparticles

An ultrasensitive and stable "dual-potential" ratiometric electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor is reported for specific DNA, the femtomolar detection limit (0.12 fM, S/N = 3) and high selectivity insure its potential applications in cancer biomarkers searching or monitoring. The excellent performance of the sensor comes from simultaneously fabricated layer by layer structure "target DNA + Hemin / Au-Luminol NPs / DNA* / sl DNA / TGA / QDs / MWNTs / GCE" mode which was based on the enhancing effect of luminol by G-quadruplex / hemin and Au nanoparticles and the quenching effect of CdSe/ZnS by G-quadruplex / hemin. (i) DNA-SH could combine with Au-Luminol NPs via S-Au bond to solve the problem of poor solubility and weak ECL intensity of luminol in neutral medium. (ii) Target DNA and Hemin formed the G-quadruplex / hemin peroxidase mimicking DNAzyme could enhance the ECL of luminol and quench the ECL of CdSe/ZnS simultaneously. (iii) DNA* was employed to increase a certain distance between CdSe/ZnS and Au-Luminol for enhancing the CdSe/ZnS QDs initial ECL intensity. The dual-potential ratiometric mode lower the influence of background and side reaction of the ECL sensor which were the most important factors in trace sensing.