CuS porous nanospheres as a novel noble metal-free co-reaction accelerator for enhancing electrochemiluminescence and sensitive immunoassay of mucin 1

Herein, an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor was fabricated for sensitive assay of mucin 1 (MUC1) employing Ab2 labeled CuS porous nanospheres (CuS PNSs) complexes as the signal probe. The prepared novel noble metal-free co-reaction accelerator of CuS PNSs with nice catalytic property for H2O2 decomposition enhanced the ECL response of N-(Aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol) (ABEI)/H2O2. Meanwhile, CuS PNSs with large specific surface area served as good carrier for ABEI functionalized Ag nanoparticles immobilization. Hence, the ECL signal has significantly boosted by the ABEI/H2O2/CuS PNSs ternary ECL system. This MUC1 immunosensor showed a broad linear range of 10 fg/mL-10 ng/mL with a detection limit of 3.7 fg/mL, indicating the proposed strategy offered a good model for the detection of protein markers.