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Confinement-Induced Charge Branching in Bioinspired Vesicles Enables Self-Validated Photoelectrochemical Sensing
Ruicheng Xu1, Huayue Sun1, Wei Yang1
1School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, P R China.
ACS Sensors
|March 3, 2026
Summary
Artificial photosynthesis and sensing are advanced by mimicking nature. Spatial confinement in vesicles creates charge branching for self-validating, sensitive detection of analytes like serum amyloid A.
Area of Science:
- Artificial photosynthesis and bio-inspired sensing technologies.
- Molecular mechanisms for energy flow control in artificial systems.
Background:
- A key challenge in artificial photosynthesis and sensing is controlling energy flow to prevent destructive pathways, unlike natural systems.
- Replicating nature's feedback control mechanisms is crucial for developing robust and reliable artificial photoelectronic interfaces.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate how spatial confinement can induce deterministic charge branching in bio-inspired vesicles.
- To develop a self-validating sensing platform with high sensitivity and signal stability for analyte detection.
Main Methods:
- Co-assembly of porphyrin and carotenoid chromophores within bioinspired vesicles to induce spatial confinement.
- Utilizing charge branching to direct electrons towards photoelectrochemical conversion and radiative relaxation into fluorescence.
- Application of the developed interface for sensitive detection of serum amyloid A in human serum.
Main Results:
- Spatial confinement induced a deterministic charge-branching process, decoupling the excited-state manifold.
- Orthogonal signals from photocurrent and fluorescence provided built-in self-validation, suppressing false responses.
- Achieved sub-picogram sensitivity and robust signal stability for serum amyloid A detection in human serum.
Conclusions:
- Confinement-induced charge branching is a viable molecular mechanism for adaptive and self-validating photoelectronic interfaces.
- The developed system effectively mimics the feedback control observed in natural photosystems.
- This approach offers a promising strategy for advanced biosensing and artificial photosynthesis applications.
Keywords:
bioinspired confinementcharge branchingliposomal vesiclesorthogonal photoelectrochemistryself-validated sensingMore Related Videos
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