Trace Detection Research Articles

Two birds with one stone: Ratiometric sensing platform overcoming cross-interference for multiple-scenario detection and accurate discrimination of tetracycline analogs

Environmental pollution caused by tetracycline antibiotics (TCs) is a major concern for public health worldwide. Trace detection and reliable discrimination of tetracycline and its analogs are consequently essential to determine the distribution characteristics of various tetracycline family members. Here, a dual-response sensor was constructed by integrating the fluorescence emission of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) doped SiO2 and Eu3+. A portable Lab-on-Paper device is further fabricated through probe immobilization, which allows convenient visual detection of tetracycline using a smartphone. In addition, for the coexistence of multiple tetracycline analogs, dimensionality reduction via principal component analysis is applied to the spectra, realizing accurate differentiation of the four most widely used tetracycline analogs (tetracycline (TC), chlortetracycline (CTC), oxytetracycline (OTC), and doxycycline (DOX)). The dual-response nanoplatform enabled a wide-gamut color variation crossing from green to red, with limit of detection (LOD) of 2.9 nM and 89.8 nM for spectrometer- and paper-based sensors, respectively. Analytical performance was examined in multiple real samples, including food, environmental, and biological settings, confirming robust environmental adaptability and resistance. Compared to previous TC sensors, this method has several notable improvements, including improved ecological safety, accessibility, reproducibility, practicality, and anti-cross-interference capacity. These results highlight the potential of the proposed “two birds with one stone” strategy, providing an integrated methodology for synchronous quantitative detection and derivative identification toward environmental contaminants.

Tilted fiber Bragg grating surface plasmon resonance based optical fiber cadmium ion trace detection

A plasmonic tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG)-based sensor for the detection of cadmium ion (Cd2+) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The TFBG is coated with a thin gold film, where glutathione (GSH) can self-assemble on the gold coating to bond Cd2+ and form complexes. To enhance Cd2+ sensitivity, GSH-modified gold nanoparticles are used to amplify localized refractive index changes around TFBG surface, induced by Cd2+ concentration variations. The experimental results indicate a limit of detection of ∼0.06 nM, which is two orders better than reported fiber grating-based Cd2+ sensors. Additionally, the proposed TFBG sensor performs a wide dynamic range from 0.01 nM to 1000 nM for Cd2+ detections and temperature-compensated wavelength monitoring with Bragg resonance.

Multifunctional Nanoprobe-Amplified Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay on Capillary: A Universal Platform for Simple, Rapid, and Ultrasensitive Dual-Mode Pathogen Detection.

Although the traditional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been widely applied in pathogen detection and clinical diagnostics, it always suffers from complex procedures, a long incubation time, unsatisfying sensitivity, and a single signal readout. Here, we developed a simple, rapid, and ultrasensitive platform for dual-mode pathogen detection based on a multifunctional nanoprobe integrated with a capillary ELISA (CLISA) platform. The novel capture antibodies-modified capillaries can act as a swab to combine in situ trace sampling and detection procedures, eliminating the dissociation between sampling and detection in traditional ELISA assays. With excellent photothermal and peroxidase-like activity, the Fe3O4@MoS2 nanoprobe with a unique p-n heterojunction was chosen as an enzyme substitute and amplified signal tag to label the detection antibody for further sandwich immune sensing. As the analyte concentration increased, the Fe3O4@MoS2 probe could generate dual-mode signals, including remarkable color changes from the chromogenic substrate oxidation as well as photothermal enhancement. Moreover, to avoid false negative results, the excellent magnetic capability of the Fe3O4@MoS2 probe can be used to pre-enrich the trace analytes, amplifying the detection signal and enhancing the immunoassay's sensitivity. Under optimal conditions, specific and rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 has been realized successfully based on this integrated nanoprobe-enhanced CLISA platform. The detection limits were 5.41 pg·mL-1 for the photothermal assay and 150 pg·mL-1 for the visual colorimetric assay. More importantly, the simple, affordable, and portable platform can also be expanded to rapidly detect other targets such as Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhimurium in practical samples, making it a universal and attractive tool for multiple pathogen analysis and clinical testing in the post COVID-19 era.

Programmable-Modulated Ultrasonic Transducer Array for Contactless Detection of Viral RNAs.

The current polymerase chain reactions-based nucleic acid tests for large-scale infectious disease diagnosis are always lab-dependent and generate large amounts of highly infectious plastic waste. Direct non-linear acoustic driven of microdroplets provide an ideal platform for contactless spatial and temporal manipulation of liquid samples. Here, a strategy to programmable-manipulate microdroplets using potential pressure well for contactless trace detection is conceptualized and designed. On such contactless modulation platform, up to seventy-two piezoelectric transducers are precisely self-focusing single-axis arranged and controlled, which can generate dynamic pressure nodes for effectively contact-free manipulating microdroplets without vessel contamination. In addition, the patterned microdroplet array can act as contactless microreactor and allow multiple trace samples (1-5µL) biochemical analysis, and the ultrasonic vortex can also accelerate non-equilibrium chemical reactions such as recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA). The results of fluorescence detection indicated that such programmable modulated microdroplet achieved contactless trace nucleic acid detection with a sensitivity of 0.21copyµL-1 in only 6-14min, which is 30.3-43.3% shorter than the conventional RPA approach. Such a programmable containerless microdroplet platform can be used for toxic, hazardous, or infectious samples sensing, opening up new avenues for developing future fully automated detection systems.

Effect of evaporation on the limit of detection of explosive traces by active spectral imaging

When developing methods for standoff detection of explosive traces, an important issue is determination of the limit (minimum) amount of a substance available for detection. This limit depends on the features of the measuring complex realization, on the physicochemical properties of the substance, and on the dynamics of sublimation (evaporation) of the substance from the surface. In this work, we consider the problem of detection limit for a measuring complex based on the method of active spectral imaging. In realization of this method, the distance to the object and the measurement time after the appearance at the surface of a substance imprint are important. How long this trace amount of substance can be detected, taking into account its evaporation? An explosive imprint is a thin layer on a surface (usually considered as a fingerprint with traces of the substance). We theoretically consider the dynamics of the change in the area of this imprint on the basis of a mathematical model of evaporation of a thin layer. Based on mathematical modeling, we can estimate the amount of a specific substance available for detection under the given conditions and the availability time. We identified the main parameters that affect the rate of film evaporation and the range of parameter change and calculated the kinetic parameters of sublimation of thin films of some explosives. The performed calculations allowed us to draw conclusions about the detection limit of substances for the active spectral imaging method depending on the distance to the measurement object and the time after the appearance of a surface trace with an initial surface concentration and area specific to a fingerprint.

Ag-Coated Si nanowire arrays: A new route for the precise detection of fungicides by surface enhanced Raman scattering

In this study, we present an efficient method based on vertically oriented silicon nanowire arrays coated with silver nanoparticles to achieve significantly surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signals. The method is applicable for the accurate detection of fungicides and related compounds. The substrates were obtained by a two-step process consisting of the growth of Si nanowire arrays on a silicon wafer by metal-assisted chemical etching and subsequent coating with Ag nanoparticles by the sputtering method. The effect of sputtering time on the growth of nanowires, their morphology and enhancement factor of the signals obtained from the SERS sensor were studied in detail. The final enhancement factor of Raman shift is 1.1 × 107, allowing the limit of trace detection for carbendazim to be as low as 0.1 ppm, with a relative standard deviation of less than 2.07%. This result opens up the potential for direct application of prepared substrates in ultra-fast chemical analysis.

Ultrasensitive and highly selective determination of iodate by reversed-phase ion pair HPLC–amperometric detector after online electrochemical reduction to iodide

We developed an ultrasensitive and highly selective method to quantify iodate (IO3–) in iodized salt and biological samples. In the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system, IO3– was injected with sampler and reduced to iodide (I–) online using a Coulomb detector (CD) as a pre-column reactor, retained by C18 column with the help of ion pairs, and then determined by an amperometric detector (AD). For analysis of IO3–, several parameters and reactive conditions of Coulomb detector, including applied potential, pH value, and salt concentration, were optimized to obtain the best reduction efficiency. The optimized HPLC–CD-AD method was found to be linear over a wide range of IO3– concentration (0.05–0.25 μg/mL) with appreciable recovery rates (86.90– 94.70%) of quality controls at excellent detection limits (100 pg) and acceptable variability. The analysis of IO3– in actual samples, such as urine of volunteers, iodized salt, and seawater, discovered that the method has high selectivity and little interference. It can be concluded that the proposed method was ultrasensitive and highly selective in the trace detection of IO3.

Spatial Multiplexing of Whispering Gallery Mode Sensors.

Whispering gallery mode resonators have proven to be robust and sensitive platforms for the trace detection of chemical and/or biological analytes. Conventional approaches using serially addressed resonators face challenges in simultaneous multi-channel (i.e., multi-species) detection. We present an alternative monitoring scheme that allows for the spatial multiplexing of whispering gallery mode resonators with the simultaneous observation of the resonance spectra from each of them. By imaging arrays of microspheres and monitoring the glare spot intensities through image processing routines, resonance spectra from multiple resonators may be simultaneously recorded without interference or confounding effects of serial excitation/detection. We demonstrate our multiplexed imaging approach with bulk refractive index variations and virus-antibody binding.

Multistage Detection of Tetrodotoxin Traces in Diodon hystrix Collected in El Salvador.

This study describes a multistage methodology to detect minute amounts of tetrodotoxin in fishes, a plan that may be broadened to include other marine organisms. This methodology was applied to porcupinefish (Diodon hystrix) collected in Punta Chiquirín, El Salvador. A three-stage approach along with post-acquisition processing was employed, to wit: (a) Sample screening by selected reaction monitoring (HPLC-MS/MS-SRM) analyses to quickly identify possible toxin presence via a LC/MS/MS API 3200 system with a triple quadrupole; (b) HPLC-HRFTMS-full scan analyses using an ion trap-Orbitrap spectrometer combined with an MZmine 2-enhanced dereplication-like workflow to collect high-resolution mass spectra; and (c) HPLC-HRMS2 analyses. This is the first time tetrodotoxin has been reported in D. hystrix specimens collected in El Salvador.

Multimodal Deep Learning for Predicting Adverse Birth Outcomes Based on Early Labour Data.

Cardiotocography (CTG) is a widely used technique to monitor fetal heart rate (FHR) during labour and assess the health of the baby. However, visual interpretation of CTG signals is subjective and prone to error. Automated methods that mimic clinical guidelines have been developed, but they failed to improve detection of abnormal traces. This study aims to classify CTGs with and without severe compromise at birth using routinely collected CTGs from 51,449 births at term from the first 20 min of FHR recordings. Three 1D-CNN and LSTM based architectures are compared. We also transform the FHR signal into 2D images using time-frequency representation with a spectrogram and scalogram analysis, and subsequently, the 2D images are analysed using a 2D-CNNs. In the proposed multi-modal architecture, the 2D-CNN and the 1D-CNN-LSTM are connected in parallel. The models are evaluated in terms of partial area under the curve (PAUC) between 0-10% false-positive rate; and sensitivity at 95% specificity. The 1D-CNN-LSTM parallel architecture outperformed the other models, achieving a PAUC of 0.20 and sensitivity of 20% at 95% specificity. Our future work will focus on improving the classification performance by employing a larger dataset, analysing longer FHR traces, and incorporating clinical risk factors.

Qualitative and Quantitative Recognition of Volatile Organic Compounds in Their Liquid Phase Based on Terahertz Microfluidic EIT Meta-Sensors

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are directly associated with human health concerns and environment safety. Therefore, it is urgent to achieve an accurate detection of VOCs both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this work, the qualitative detection of ethyl benzene (EB), isopropyl alcohol (IPA), ethyl acetate (EA) – three pure VOCs in liquid phase were discussed using terahertz (THz) microfluidic Electromagnetic Induced Transparency (EIT) meta-sensor. The THz response illustrated that with an increase in VOCs’ volumes (1~6μL), resonant frequencies of dual transmission dips (0.855, 1.724 THz) and the EIT peak (1.213THz) exhibited red shift. The limit of detections for pure IPA, EA, EB can achieve 5.45μg, 13.46μg, 4.35μg, respectively. The multivariate fusion (MF) model based on the EIT responses to VOCs was utilized to improve the accuracy of trace detection and classification of VOCs. Furthermore, the above method combined with principal component analysis with Gaussian mixture model (PCA-GMM) and the neural network classification algorithm support vector machine (SVM) was applied to the recognition of VOCs. In addition, the THz method is not feasible to detect trace amounts of VOCs (typically 0.3mg/L) in waste water because water is highly absorbable in THz band and VOCs will evaporate if water is removed. Here, IPA, EA, EB in soil were detected and classified by PCA-GMM combined with MF. Our results provide a new terahertz meta-sensor platform to trace detection of VOCs in liquid phase and in soil and may be used to identify hazardous wastes in illegal dumping.

Detection of depression marker ASS1 in urine by gold nanoparticles based dual epitope-peptides imprinted sensor

Trace detection of argininosuccinate synthetase 1 (ASS1), a depression marker, in urine samples is difficult to achieve. In this work, a dual-epitope-peptides imprinted sensor for ASS1 detection in urine was constructed based on the high selectivity and sensitivity of the “epitope imprinting approach”. First, two cysteine-modified epitope-peptides were immobilized onto gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) deposited on a flexible electrode (ITO-PET) by gold-sulfur bonds (Au–S), then a controlled electropolymerization of dopamine was carried out to imprint the epitope peptides. After removing epitope-peptides, the dual-epitope-peptides imprinted sensor (MIP/AuNPs/ITO-PET) which with multiple binding sites for ASS1 was obtained. Compared with single epitope-peptide, dual-epitope-peptides imprinted sensor had higher sensitivity, which presented a linear range from 0.15 to 6000 pg ml−1 with a low limit of detection (LOD = 0.106 pg mL−1, S/N = 3). It had good reproducibility (RSD = 1.74%), repeatability (RSD = 3.60%), stability (RSD = 2.98%), and good selectivity, and the sensor had good recovery (92.4%–99.0%) in urine samples. This is the first highly sensitive and selective electrochemical assay for the depression marker ASS1 in urine, which is expected to provide help for the non-invasive and objective diagnosis of depression.

Optical response of Au films for reproducible Si nano-structuring and its application for efficient micro-drop SERS with portable Raman system

Si nanostructuring by metal assisted chemical etching is highly sensitive to morphology of thin metal film, here we demonstrate use of plasmon driven optical or dielectric response of Au films for predicting nanopore or nanowire Si prior to etching, ensuring the process reproducibility. By controlling growth temperature, it is shown that same mass thickness of Au films can produce either nanopore, nanowire or hybrid (mix of the two) Si nanostructures, useful for various applications. Ag nanoparticles coated nanostructure Si is shown to be efficient surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate for dry state measurements with micro-Raman system. In contrast, by exploiting super-hydrophilicity and strong light coupling of nanostructure Si, a novel micro-drop SERS using portable Raman spectrometer is demonstrated as low-cost, reliable and easy field-deployable technique. With very low sample volume about 50 μL of as prepared Au nanoparticles and analyte, it is capable of producing SERS signal in samples containing 120 pg thiram, 240 pg Rh6G, 455 pg malachite green and 48 pg methylene blue. With advantages of micro-drop SERS, mainly high intensity signal with 3D dynamic hot-spots at high laser power, longer shelf-life colloidal gold, reusable substrates with no prior sample preparation, this method is envisaged to be an inexpensive technique for on-site trace detection applications and importantly quick generation of large experimental SERS data-set for machine learning (ML) driven studies. This is demonstrated by principal component analysis with ML classifier for 100% accurate prediction of trace dyes, pesticide and their binary mixtures.

The Innovative Growth of Space Archaeology: A Brief Overview of Concepts and Approaches in Detection, Monitoring, and Promotion of the Archaeological Heritage

Space Archaeology (SA), also known as Satellite Archaeology, Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeology, or Archaeology from Space, is part of the wider interdisciplinary field of Remote Sensing for Archaeology. The application of satellite data in archaeological investigations has proven useful for landscape observation and analysis, the detection of archaeological traces, the reconstruction and monitoring of natural and anthropic processes, and the management and promotion of archaeological heritage. During the last few decades, the increasing number of SA studies has demonstrated innovative growth in archaeological disciplines due to the significant enhancement of spatial technologies, the advancement of visual inspection and image processing techniques, the development of data fusion methodologies, and the improvement of multi-temporal analysis methods. Therefore, a broad overview of the current situation in the concepts and approaches of SA is necessary to gain greater awareness of the current potentialities and limitations of this science to better address future studies. The present work provides a review of the scientific literature by exploring the different aspects of SA and the goals achieved to date in three main application fields: Detection, monitoring, and promotion of archaeological heritage. The contributions reviewed were divided within each of these three categories by analyzing the type of SA data and methods applied. The results indicate that (1) most studies aim to detect archaeological sites compared to monitoring and promotion; (2) optical images are used more than SAR data; and (3) techniques of image enhancement and visual interpretation are applied more than other data processing methods. This brief overview allows us to consider SA as an evolving discipline, an engine for cross-skills training, as well as a promising future science that can play a key role in the frontier of sustainable development and the new space economy.

Detection of microplastic traces in four different types of municipal wastewater treatment plants through FT-IR and TED-GC-MS

Large amounts of microplastics are discharged into wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), from where some of them are released into natural waterbodies on account of their not being fully eliminated by WWTPs. To investigate the behavior and emission of microplastics from WWTPs, we selected four WWTPs with different treatment technologies, including anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic (A2O), sequence batch reactor (SBR), media, and membrane bioreactor (MBR). The number of microplastics detected using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy ranged from 520 to 1820 particles/L in influent and from 0.56 to 2.34 particles/L in effluent. The microplastic removal efficiencies of four WWTPs were over 99%, indicating that the type of treatment technologies did not significantly affect the removal rate of microplastics. In the unit process for each WWTP, the major stages relating to microplastic removal were the secondary clarifier and tertiary treatment processes. Most microplastics detected were categorized as fragments and fibers, while other types were hardly detected. The size of more than 80% of microplastic particles detected in WWTPs ranged between 20 and 300 μm, indicating that they were significantly smaller than the size threshold defined for microplastics. Therefore, we used thermal extraction-desorption coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (TED-GC-MS) to evaluate the microplastic mass content in all four WWTPs, and the results were compared with those of the FT-IR analysis. In this method, only four components, namely polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyethylene terephthalate, were analyzed because of the analysis limitation, and the total microplastic concentration represented the sum of four components concentrations. The influent and effluent microplastic concentrations estimated by TED-GC-MS ranged from not detectable to 160 μg/L and 0.04–1.07 μg/L, respectively, indicating a correlation coefficient of 0.861 (p < 0.05) between the TED-GC-MS and FT-IR results, when compared to the combined abundance of the four microplastic components by FT-IR analysis.

A visible and near-infrared light dual-responsive PEC immunosensor for archaeological silk microtrace detection based on in situ growth of Ag2S on ZnO-MXene nanocomposites

Developing an effective analytical method for microtrace detection of ancient silk is highly desirable and vitally crucial for exploring the origin and spread of silk. Herein, a taxonomically specific anti-fibroin monoclonal antibody was prepared and an elaborate visible/near-infrared (vis/NIR) photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunosensor was proposed. The sensor employed Ag2S nanoparticles (NPs) grown in situ on ZnO nanowire array-MXene nanocomposites (ZnO-MX) via a sonochemical method as a photosensitive material. The experimental results illustrated that the ZnO-MX/Ag2S-based sensor presented 6.8 times larger PEC responses than a ZnO-MX-based sensor under visible light illumination, and the PEC signal of the ZnO-MX/Ag2S nanocomposites was 30 times as high as that of ZnO-MX under 808 nm NIR light, indicating enhanced photoelectric activity and a matched energy band structure of ZnO with MXene and Ag2S. This PEC immunosensor exhibited excellent potential for the ultrasensitive detection of Bombyx mori silk traces due to its wide linear range of 0.005–50 ng mL−1 and low detection limit of 1.51 pg mL−1. Additionally, the immunosensor showed outstanding specificity, stability, and repeatability, particularly for the qualitative detection of archeological artifacts. Given its aforementioned benefits, ZnO-MX/Ag2S nanocomposites are potentially attractive photoactive materials for use in vis/NIR PEC immunosensors. Moreover, this demonstrated method offers a feasible method to investigate the history and distribution of ancient silk.

Trace detection of La (III), Ce (III), Ce (IV), Nd (III), and Gd (III) using 2, 8, 14, 20-tetramethyl-5, 7-dinitro calix [4] resorcinarene polyhydroxamic acid by solid-phase extraction and separation

The quantitative trace determination and separation from individual rare earths is a difficult task, with this view a new synthesized and functionalised Calix[4]resorcinarene polyhydroxamic acid is used for sorption, speciation, sequential separation and trace determination of La (II), Ce (III), Ce (IV), Nd (III) and Gd (III). The rare earths are quantitatively separated and trace determination in the range of 2–15 ng with the selectivity order La (III) > Ce (III) > Nd (III) > Gd (III). The column parameters like pH, flow rate and distribution were evaluated. The effect of various electrolytes and diverse metal ions in separation are studied. The present method is applied for estimation of rare earths in monazite and other geological specimens. Suitable eluents were used to effectuate the separations of the binary and ternary combinations.

New fluorescent reporters capable of Ultra-sensitively detecting trinitrotoluene on surfaces: A proof-of-concept for finding hidden nitroaromatics in the workroom

We describe the proof of concept of a portable testing setup for the detection of trinitrotoluene (TNT), a common component in hidden explosive devices. The system allows for field-testing and generation of real-time results to test for TNT traces in surfaces by simply using a filter paper and a fluorescent reporter. In this way, the controlled trapping and detection of the analyte by a chemical sensor gives reliable results at extremely low concentrations of TNT on surfaces under real life conditions suitable for daily use in ordinary sampling for example at airlines luggage storage or sport locker rooms. The reported fluorescent methodology is very sensitive and selective, allowing for the trapping and detection of TNT by a fluorescent reporter to give reliable results at very low concentrations. As a complement, we report the preparation of a modified Sylgard film that is useful under real conditions for qualitative fluorescent detection of hidden traces of TNT on surfaces or fingers by a swab method. The combination of quantitative and qualitative detection of TNT traces on surfaces constitutes a comprehensive new method for the detection of hidden nitroaromatic explosives in the workplace.

Magnetic tubular nickel@silica-graphene nanocomposites with high preconcentration capacity for organothiophosphate pesticide removal in environmental water: Fabrication, magnetic solid-phase extraction, and trace detection

Organothiophosphate pesticides (OPPs) are the most common water contaminants, significantly endangering human health and bringing serious public safety issues. Thus, developing effective technologies for the removal or trace detection of OPPs from water is urgent. Herein, a novel graphene-based silica-coated core–shell tubular magnetic nanocomposite (Ni@SiO2-G) was fabricated for the first time and used for the efficient magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) of the OPPs chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and fenitrothion from environmental water. The experimental factors affecting extraction efficiency such as adsorbent dosage, extraction time, desorption solvent, desorption mode, desorption time, and adsorbent type were evaluated. The synthesized Ni@SiO2-G nanocomposites showed a higher preconcentration capacity than the Ni nanotubes, Ni@SiO2 nanotubes, and graphene. Under the optimized conditions, 5 mg of tubular nano-adsorbent displayed good linearity within the range of 0.1–1 μg·mL–1, low limits of detection (0.04–0.25 pg·mL–1), low limits of quantification (0.132–0.834 pg·mL−1), good reusability (n = 5; relative standard deviations between 1.46% and 9.65%), low dosage (5 mg), and low real detection concentration (< 3.0 ng·mL−1). Moreover, the possible interaction mechanism was investigated by density functional theory calculation. Results showed that Ni@SiO2-G was a potential magnetic material for the preconcentration and extraction of formed OPPs at ultra-trace levels from environmental water.

Encapsulation of Tetraphenylethylene Derivative in Liposome Vesicles as Promising Aggregation-Induced Electrochemiluminescence Emitter for Detection of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2.

In this work, a sensitive signal-on electrochemiluminescence biosensor using liposome-encapsuled 1,1,2,2-tetra(4-carboxylphenyl)ethylene (TPE) as a promising aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence (AIECL) emitter for detection of biomarkers was developed. Aggregation-induced enhancement occurs internally through the spatial confinement effect and intramolecular self-encapsulation of encapsulating TPE and triethylamine (TEA) molecules in liposome cavities. Peptide sequence WTGWCLNPEESTWGFCTGSF (WF-20) was used to replace the antibody for reducing the steric hindrance of the sensing surface while taking into account the affinity. The proposed sensing strategies showed satisfactory properties for detection of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) ranging from 0.01 to 500 ng/mL with a limit of detection of 6.65 pg/mL. The results confirmed that encapsulation of luminescent molecules in the vesicle structure for triggering the AIECL phenomenon is a promising method to prepare a signal label for a trace detection biomarker.