Synergy Effect between BSA and Co2+ to Boost Chemiluminescence

Abstract

Boosting the chemiluminescence (CL) with functionalized materials holds great promise for the ultrasensitive bioassays. Herein, synergy effect between BSA and Co2+ to boost chemiluminescence was revealed. By introducing BSA and Co2+ in the luminol system, sea urchin-like composites with hierarchical architecture named [O]BSA-Co were formed in-situ, which can be not only acted as the microreactors to enrich the CL-related reagents, but also exhibited strong oxidase-like capability to induce the generation of reactive oxide species. Surprising, the unique structure combined the oxidase-like feature of [O]BSA-Co and the capping reagents endowed over 100-fold CL enhancement compared with the classic luminol-Co2+ or luminol-BSA system with O2 as coreactant. Moreover, the proposed catalytical amplification mechanism could be extended to the different proteins such as lysozyme, protamine, thrombin, papain. Based on the fabricated system, a sensitive sensing platform was constructed for the determination of ascorbic acid with satisfied results. The high-efficiency enhancement catalyzed by [O]BSA-Co provided a simple and eco-friendly route for the construction of the novel CL sensing platforms.