Construction of an ultrasensitive dual-mode chiral molecules sensing platform based on molecularly imprinted polymer modified bipolar electrode

Chiral molecules are abundant in nature. Phenylketonuria (PKU) is caused by the abnormal transformation of chiral molecules L-phenylalanine (L-Phe) in the human blood , which can cause irreversible harm to the human body. In this work, we documented an electrochemiluminescent (ECL) dual-mode sensor platform based on molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) modified closed bipolar electrodes for high sensitivity detection of L-Phe and D-phenylalanine (D-Phe). In the anode chamber of a bipolar electrode modified with phenylalanine imprinting, Ru (bpy) 3 2+ underwent a redox reaction to produce a chemiluminescence response under the stimulation of a driving voltage . At the same time, the reduction of the cathode film of the bipolar electrode was promoted, and the color changed from dark blue to nearly white. Thus, the dual-mode detection of target molecules is realized. The detection range of the sensor for phenylalanine reached 0.01–10,000 nM, and the detection limits of L-Phe and D-Phe were 3.9 pM and 4.6 pM (S/N = 3), respectively. This dual-mode system achieved high stability and high specificity, and also successfully realized the detection of actual samples, which is expected to achieve future clinical applications.