A sensitive immunosensor via in situ enzymatically generating efficient quencher for electrochemiluminescence of iridium complexes doped SiO2 nanoparticles

•The Ir(ppy)3 doped silica nanoparticles (SiO2@Ir) performed improved ECL emissions.•The ECL emission of SiO2@Ir could be quenched via H2O2 from enzymatic reaction.•A ECL sandwich immunosensor was proposed with improved performances.•The ECL strategy revealed a new avenue for early diagnosis of various diseases.

A sensitive electrochemiluminescent (ECL) sandwich immunosensor was proposed herein based on the tris (2-phenylpyridine) iridium [Ir(ppy)3] doped silica nanoparticles (SiO2@Ir) with improved ECL emission as signal probes and glucose oxidase (GOD)-based in situ enzymatic reaction to generate H2O2 for efficiently quenching the ECL emission of SiO2@Ir. Typically, the SiO2@Ir not only increased the loading amount of Ir(ppy)3 as ECL indicators with high ECL emission, but also improved their water-solubility, which efficiently enhanced the ECL emission. Furthermore, by the efficient quench effect of H2O2 from in situ glucose oxidase (GOD)-based enzymatic reaction on the ECL emission of SiO2@Ir, a signal-off ECL immunsensor could be established for sensitive assay. With N-terminal of the prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (BNPT) as a model, the proposed ECL assay performed high sensitivity and low detection limit. Importantly, the proposed sensitive ECL strategy was not only suitable for the detection of BNPT for acute myocardial infarction, but also revealed a new avenue for early diagnosis of various diseases via proteins, nucleotide sequence, microRNA and cells.