Highly efficient electrochemiluminescence based on Lu@Ov-ZMO as an ECL emitter for ultrasensitive detection of CA242

An effective electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emitter, luminol@oxygen vacancies-ZnMn2O4 (Lu@Ov-ZMO), was prepared to fabricate a novel luminol/H2O2-O2/Ov-ZMO ECL system for ultrasensitive detection of carbohydrate antigen 242 (CA242). The integrated design of co-reaction accelerator ZMO and luminol effectively shortened the electron transfer distance in the ECL system. Meanwhile, the abundant oxygen vacancies in ZMO further promoted the generation of more superoxide anion radicals (O2.-), which further improved the ECL luminescence efficiency. The resonance energy transfer (RET) strategy was used to construct the signal-off ECL immunesensor with PDA@SiO2 as the quencher. The fabricated immunosensor showed a good linear range of 0.01 mU/mL to 100 U/mL with a detection limit of 3.3 μU/mL (S/N = 3) under the optimum experimental conditions. This work put forward a new method of integrating luminophore and OVs enriched accelerator with wonderful signal-amplification strategy to formulate a functional immunosensor for early disease diagnostics.