title: Highly efficient electrochemiluminescence labels comprising iridium(iii) complexes.
abstract: Improving the performance of labeling agents is crucial to the further development of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) related technologies. Although a large number of ECL luminophores beyond ruthenium complexes have been reported so far, there is still a scarcity of studies involving novel ECL labeling agents. Herein, five novel iridium ECL labels and one control label comprising a ruthenium complex have been rationally designed and thoroughly characterized using photophysical techniques, theoretical calculations and electrochemical characterization to assess the ECL properties in this work. Both in coreactant-assisted potential scan experiments and through an annihilation approach, most of these novel iridium labels exhibit equivalent or even-stronger ECL signals than tri-2,2'-bipyridylruthenium(ii) [abbreviated as Ru(bpy)32+] under the same experimental conditions. Most importantly, using the same labeling protocol, bovine serum albumin (BSA) labeled with an iridium label (label 3 in this work) exhibits a much more intense ECL signal (1.9 times) than the same amount labeled with a traditional ruthenium complex (Ru-based Label in this work) in ProCell buffer solution. In addition to the advantage of exhibiting various emission colors, the novel iridium labels reported in this work may offer insight for the further development of ECL-based analytical technology.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Biology and Material Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215009, China. zhouyuyang@mail.usts.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yuyang
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8377-2641
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Biology and Material Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215009, China. zhouyuyang@mail.usts.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Biology and Material Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215009, China. zhouyuyang@mail.usts.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ruimei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leng
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Biology and Material Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215009, China. zhouyuyang@mail.usts.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lingyan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Biology and Material Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215009, China. zhouyuyang@mail.usts.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chengbao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China.
authors.forename: Qingqing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Biology and Material Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215009, China. zhouyuyang@mail.usts.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaomei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang