Luminescence-Functionalized Metal-Organic Frameworks Based on a Ruthenium(II) Complex: A Signal Amplification Strategy for Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence Immunosensors.

Novel luminescence-functionalized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with superior electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) properties were synthesized based on zinc ions as the central ions and tris(4,4'-dicarboxylicacid-2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) dichloride ([Ru(dcbpy)3](2+)) as the ligands. For potential applications, the synthesized MOFs were used to fabricate a "signal-on" ECL immunosensor for the detection of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). As expected, enhanced ECL signals were obtained through a simple fabrication strategy because luminescence-functionalized MOFs not only effectively increased the loading of [Ru(dcbpy)3](2+), but also served as a loading platform in the ECL immunosensor. Furthermore, the proposed ECL immunosensor had a wide linear range from 5 pg mL(-1) to 25 ng mL(-1) and a relatively low detection limit of 1.67 pg mL(-1) (signal/noise=3). The results indicated that luminescence-functionalized MOFs provided a novel amplification strategy in the construction of ECL immunosensors and might have great prospects for application in bioanalysis.