Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 31, 2026

An Anaerobic Biosensor Assay for the Detection of Mercury and Cadmium
Published on: December 17, 2018
Electrogenerated chemiluminescence biosensor for detection of mercury (II) ion via target-triggered manipulation of
Fen Ma1, Yu Chen1, Yinchang Zhu1
1Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of Ministry of Education Key Laboratory, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710127, PR China.
Abstract:
A new electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor is fabricated for the determination of mental ion incorporating DNA three-way junction structure (DNA-TWJ). As a model system, Hg2+ was chosen as an analyte. The ECL biosensor was fabricated by covalently coupling Hg2+ special DNA-TWJ tagged with ruthenium (II) complex (Ru) (named TW/Ru-J1) to the surface of glassy carbon electrode that had been covalently modified with 4-aminobenzoic acid via electrochemical oxidations. Upon binding of Hg2+ to the TW/Ru-J1, the confirmation of TW/Ru-J1 changed and induced Ru away from surface of electrode and thus led to a low ECL signal. The signal linearly decreases with the concentration of Hg2+ in the range from 0.1 pM to 10 pM with a detection limit of 0.04 pM This study could be easily extended to various analytical platforms for the detection of many kinds of analytes or their interactions such as DNA/RNA, DNAzyme/target, aptamer/target, and antibody/antigen.
Related Concept Videos
Common Ion Effect
Precipitation of Ions
The equation that describes the equilibrium between solid calcium carbonate and its solvated ions is:
Ion Channels
Ion channels are specialized integral membrane proteins on the plasma membrane that allow...
P-N junction
Formation of Complex Ions
Ions and Ionic Charges

