A novel aptasensor for lysozyme based on electrogenerated chemiluminescence resonance energy transfer between luminol and silicon quantum dots

In the present work, electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of luminol was investigated in neutral condition at a gold electrode in the presence of silicon quantum dots (SiQDs). The results revealed that SiQDs can not only greatly enhance luminol ECL, but also act as energy acceptor to construct a novel ECL resonance energy transfer (ECL-RET) system with luminol. As a result, strong anodic ECL signal was obtained in neutral condition at the bare gold electrode, which is suitable for biosensing application. Lysozyme exhibited apparent inhibiting effect on the ECL-RET system, based on which an ECL aptasensor was fabricated for the sensitive detection of lysozyme. The proposed method showed high sensitivity, good selectivity, and wide linearity for the detection of lysozyme in the range of 5.0×10-14−5.0×10−9 g mL−1 with a detection limit of 5.8×10-15 g mL−1 (3σ). The results suggested that as-proposed luminol/SiQDs ECL biosensor will be promising in the detection enzyme.