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Updated: Jul 1, 2025
Synthesis of Near-Infrared Emitting Gold Nanoclusters for Biological Applications
Published on: March 22, 2020
Dynamic surface reconstruction of individual gold nanoclusters by using a co-reactant enables color-tunable
Yan-Mei Lei1,2, Di Wu3, Mei-Chen Pan1
1Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University Chongqing 400715 China yingzhuo@swu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Here we report for the first time the phenomenon of continuously color-tunable electrochemiluminescence (ECL) from individual gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) confined in a porous hydrogel matrix by adjusting the concentration of the co-reactant. Specifically, the hydrogel-confined Au NCs exhibit strong dual-color ECL in an aqueous solution with triethylamine (TEA) as a co-reactant, with a record-breaking quantum yield of 95%. Unlike previously reported Au NCs, the ECL origin of the hydrogel-confined Au NCs is related to both the Au(0) kernel and the Au(i)-S surface. Surprisingly, the surface-related ECL of Au NCs exhibits a wide color-tunable range of 625-829 nm, but the core-related ECL remains constant at 489 nm. Theoretical and experimental studies demonstrate that the color-tunable ECL is caused by the dynamic surface reconstruction of Au NCs and TEA radicals. This work opens up new avenues for dynamically manipulating the ECL spectra of core-shell emitters in biosensing and imaging research.
