Dopamine (DA) is an important catecholamine neurotransmitter and its abnormal concentration is closely related to diseases such as hypertension, Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. Due to the advantages of high sensitivity and fast response for electrochemiluminescence (ECL), developing ECL sensors for detecting DA was very critical in clinical diagnosis. ECL resonance energy transfer (ECL-RET) was an effective signaling mechanism. However, the shortage of highly efficient ECL-RET pairs impeded the development of DA sensors. Herein, methyl-modified perylene diimide derivative (PDI-CH3) self-assembly nanorod materials as luminophores and CuO nanomaterials as acceptors were integrated into nanocomposites. An obvious ECL-RET was found in PDI-CH3/CuO nanocomposites. After PDI-CH3/CuO nanocomposites were treated with DA, a large increase in ECL intensity was observed. Then, PDI-CH3/CuO nanocomposites were taken as an ECL platform to detect DA. This ECL sensor exhibited a linear response to DA from 10-12 M to 10-8 M with a limit of detection of 0.20 pM. Compared with other sensors for DA detection, the constructed ECL sensor exhibited higher sensitivity. In addition, the novel ECL sensor in this work showed good practicability in a human serum sample.
Keywords: CuO; dopamine sensor; electrochemiluminescence resonance energy transfer; perylene diimide derivative; self-assembly.