Double-enhanced sandwich electrochemiluminescence aptasensor based on g-C3N4–Au-luminol nanocomposites and ZnCuS nanosheets for highly sensitive detection of mucin 1

Abstract

The traditional luminol electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensing suffers from low signal response and instability issues. Here, an Au/ZnCuS double-enhanced g-C3N4-supported luminol ECL aptasensor is constructed for the sensitive detection of human mucin 1 (MUC1). In this platform, g-C3N4 of a large specific surface area is beneficial to load more luminol illuminants. Au nanoparticles promote the decomposition of H2O2 coreactants to generate more reactive oxygen (•OH and O2•−) intermediates, while ZnCuS can immobilize the aptamer and simultaneously catalyze H2O2 decomposition, realizing the double-wing signal amplification. Under optimal conditions, this sensor shows a good detection capability within 1.0 × 10−4–1.0 × 103 ng mL−1 and a low detection limit of 5.0 × 10−5 ng mL−1, as well as ideal stability, selectivity, and reproducibility. This double-enhanced aptasensor highlights a new signal-enhancement approach for early biomarker detection.