title: Bioinspired supramolecular confinement of luminol and heme proteins to enhance the chemiluminescent quantum yield.
abstract: Artificial biolumiscence: The use of a supramolecular hydrogel to confine heme proteins and luminol can enhance the quantum yield of chemiluminescence (CL) by about an order of magnitude and give an emission time 4-6 times longer.Confining heme proteins and luminol with the nanofibers of self-assembled molecules was shown to enhance the quantum yield of their chemiluminescence by about an order of magnitude. Supramolecular hydrogels formed using (9-fluorenylmethyl)carbamate (Fmoc) peptides mimicked the cellular environment of bioluminescence, which typically shows high quantum yield. The effective emission times observed were 4-6 times longer and were ascribed to the stability of the heme proteins in the hydrogel, as confirmed by quantitative analysis. This chemiluminescent system was applied to detecting trace levels of blood with 4-6 times enhancement of intensity and better sensitivity for the highly diluted sample, indicating that this approach might be extended to other applications of chemiluminescent analysis, including immunoassays.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Qigang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D006420:Hemeproteins / Q000032:analysis*; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry; D049449:Luminescence; D008165:Luminol / Q000032:analysis*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D036103:Nanotechnology
chemical_list: D006420:Hemeproteins; D020100:Hydrogels; D008165:Luminol