Overcoming Aggregation-Caused Quenching by an Improved Porphyrin Hybrid and Its Application in Enhanced Electrochemiluminescence Biosensing

Research in the field of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) has been centered on the hunt for efficient electrochemiluminescent materials but remains a great challenge. In this paper, we report a metalized porphyrin hybrid that exhibits high ECL emission efficiency and apply it as a new luminophore for the first time. A lanthanum metal functionalized organic ligand 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP) hybrid (LPH) was synthesized by a one-pot solvothermal method. TCPP exhibits a relatively obvious aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect in aqueous media, which is responsible for its undesirable ECL emission. The metalized TCPP overcomes the disadvantages of poor stability and easy agglomeration, while the improved hybrid is able to enrich more coreactants and shorten the electron transfer distance. Importantly, this strategy is to anchor the TCPP in an ordered structure through coordination binding, thereby extending the distance between molecules and further eliminating the ACQ effect of the TCPP itself. The optical properties of the obtained LPH are significantly improved. On this basis, using LPH as an efficient transmitter, we constructed an ECL immunosensor for the diagnosis of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Significantly, the study not only proposes a new strategy for the diagnosis of NSCLC but also enriches the research of ECL emitters with the ACQ effect.