Identifying Luminol Electrochemiluminescence at the Cathode via Single-Atom Catalysts Tuned Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Luminol-based electrochemiluminescence (ECL) can be readily excited by various reactive oxygen species (ROS) electrogenerated with an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the multiple active intermediates involved in the ORR catalyzed with complex nanomaterials lead to recognizing the role of ROS still elusive. Moreover, suffering from the absence of the direct electrochemical oxidation of luminol at the cathode and poor transformation efficiency of O2 to ROS, the weak cathodic ECL emission of luminol is often neglected. Herein, owing to the tunable coordination environment and structure-dependent catalytic feature, single-atom catalysts (SACs) are employed to uncover the relationship between the intrinsic ORR activity and ECL behavior. Interestingly, the traditionally negligible cathodic ECL of luminol is first boosted (ca. 70-fold) owing to the combination of electrochemical ORR catalyzed via SACs and chemical oxidation of luminol. The boosted cathodic ECL emission exhibits electron-transfer pathway-dependent response by adjusting the surrounding environment of the center metal atoms in a controlled way to selectively produce different active intermediates. This work bridges the relationship between ORR performance and ECL behavior, which will guide the development of an amplified sensing platform through rational tailoring of the ORR activity of SACs and potential-resolved ECL assays based on the high-efficiency cathodic ECL reported.