Electrochemiluminescence on smartphone with silica nanopores membrane modified electrodes for nitroaromatic explosives detection

Silica nanopores have electron channels and ion channels interpenetrating each other, which prompt the use of this structure for creating efficient electronic devices. In this study, silica nanopores membrane modified screen printed electrodes were applied in a smartphone-based electrochemiluminescence system for nitroaromatic explosives detection. Universal serial bus-on the go (USB-OTG) and camera on smartphone were used as the electrical stimulation and luminescence capture, respectively. ⎕Multimode methods including (red-green-blue) RGB, (hue-saturation-brightness) HSB, and Gray were proposed for luminescence analysis. Specific polypeptides were immobilized on the nanopores modified electrodes for nitroaromatic explosives sensing. With positive-charged tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) (Ru(bpy) ₃ ²⁺ ) as electrochemiluminescence label, the increase in luminescence was associated with the selective ion channels and the well-conductive electron channels in the negative-charged nanopores. Besides, on account of the large specific surface area, nanopores modified screen printed electrodes showed stable and uniform luminescence. Results showed that the nanopores-enhanced electrochemiluminescence on smartphone covered a linear dynamic range from 10 ⁻⁷ mg/mL to 10 ⁻³ mg/mL for nitroaromatic explosives detection with the detection limit of 2.3 × 10 ⁻⁹ mg/mL. Therefore, high-efficient photo-electricity conversion capabilities of nanopores made it a kind of promising platform for sensitive and stable electrochemiluminescence. Furthermore, smartphone-based electrochemiluminescence with disposable screen printed electrodes could facilitate the mobile monitoring of biochemical analytes in the fields of environment, security, and health.