Novel gold nanocluster electrochemiluminescence immunosensors based on nanoporous NiGd-Ni2O3-Gd2O3 alloys

Herein, three-dimensional nanoporous NiGd alloy (NP-NiGd) was prepared by selectively dealloy Al from NiGdAl alloy in mild alkaline solution, then Ni2O3 and Gd2O3 grew further on the surface of NP-NiGd to obtain the NP-NiGd-Ni2O3-Gd2O3. On this basis, NP-NiGd-Ni2O3-Gd2O3 was further functionalized with gold nanoparticles (NP-NiGd-Ni2O3-Gd2O3@Au) and acted as sensor platform to fabricate a novel electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor. Bovine serum albumin protected gold nanoclusters (AuNCs@BSA) were prepared and acted as illuminant. AuNCs@BSA modified graphene oxide (GO/AuNCs@BSA) were used as labels of second antibody. In order to characterize the performance of the ECL immunosensor, carcino embryonie antigen (CEA) was used as the model to complete the experiments. Due to the good performances of NP-NiGd-Ni2O3-Gd2O3@Au (high surface area, excellent electron conductivity) and AuNCs@BSA (low toxicity, biocompatibility, easy preparation and good water solubility), the ECL immunosensor exhibited a wide range from 10−4 to 5 ng/mL with a detection limit of 0.03 pg/mL (S/N=3). The immunosensor with excellent stability, acceptable repeatability and selectivity provided a promising method to detect CEA in human serum sample sensitively.