Tuning electrochemical water activation over NiIr single-atom alloy aerogels for stable electrochemiluminescence

Ling Ling; Mengzhen Xi; Hengjia Wang; Runshi Xiao; Lirong Zheng; Liuyong Hu; Wenling Gu; Chengzhou Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2024.04.038

Tuning electrochemical water activation over NiIr single-atom alloy aerogels for stable electrochemiluminescence

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2024 Apr 22:S2095-9273(24)00279-2. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2024.04.038. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ling Ling¹, Mengzhen Xi¹, Hengjia Wang¹, Runshi Xiao², Lirong Zheng³, Liuyong Hu⁴, Wenling Gu⁵, Chengzhou Zhu⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Plasma Chemistry and Advanced Materials, Hubei Engineering Technology Research Center of Optoelectronic and New Energy Materials, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China.
³ Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ Hubei Key Laboratory of Plasma Chemistry and Advanced Materials, Hubei Engineering Technology Research Center of Optoelectronic and New Energy Materials, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China. Electronic address: huly@wit.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China. Electronic address: wlgu@ccnu.edu.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China. Electronic address: czzhu@ccnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38679503
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2024.04.038

Abstract

The anodic oxygen evolution reaction is a well-acknowledged side reaction in traditional aqueous electrochemiluminescence (ECL) systems due to the generation and surface aggregation of oxygen at the electrode, which detrimentally impacts the stability and efficiency of ECL emission. However, the effect of reactive oxygen species generated during water oxidation on ECL luminophores has been largely overlooked. Taking the typical luminol emitter as an example, herein, we employed NiIr single-atom alloy aerogels possessing efficient water oxidation activity as a prototype co-reaction accelerator to elucidate the relationship between ECL behavior and water oxidation reaction kinetics for the first time. By regulating the concentration of hydroxide ions in the electrolyte, the electrochemical oxidation processes of both luminol and water are finely tuned. When the concentration of hydroxide ions in electrolyte is low, the kinetics of water oxidation is attenuated, which limits the generation of oxygen, effectively mitigates the influence of oxygen accumulation on the ECL strength, and offers a novel perspective for harnessing side reactions in ECL systems. Finally, a sensitive and stable sensor for antioxidant detection was constructed and applied to the practical sample detection.

Keywords: Electrochemiluminescence; Luminol; Sensing; Single-atom doping; Water activation.