Increasing Electrochemiluminescence Intensity of a Wireless Electrode Array Chip by Thousands of Times Using a Diode for Sensitive Visual Detection by a Digital Camera

Both a wireless electrochemiluminescence (ECL) electrode microarray chip and the dramatic increase in ECL by embedding a diode in an electromagnetic receiver coil have been first reported. The newly designed device consists of a chip and a transmitter. The chip has an electromagnetic receiver coil, a mini-diode, and a gold electrode array. The mini-diode can rectify alternating current into direct current and thus enhance ECL intensities by 18 thousand times, enabling a sensitive visual detection using common cameras or smart phones as low cost detectors. The detection limit of hydrogen peroxide using a digital camera is comparable to that using photomultiplier tube (PMT)-based detectors. Coupled with a PMT-based detector, the device can detect luminol with higher sensitivity with linear ranges from 10 nM to 1 mM. Because of the advantages including high sensitivity, high throughput, low cost, high portability, and simplicity, it is promising in point of care testing, drug screening, and high throughput analysis.