Electrochemiluminescence energy resonance transfer in 2D/2D heterostructured g-C3N4/MnO2 for glutathione detection

The energy transfer efficiency, strongly depending on the distance of donor–acceptor pair, is always a crucial factor for the construction of elegant electrochemiluminescence resonance energy transfer (ECL-RET)-based biosensors. In this paper, a novel and efficient ECL-RET in 2D/2D heterostructured g-C 3 N 4 /MnO 2 was developed using g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets (g-C 3 N 4 NSs) as energy donor and MnO 2 nanosheets (MnO 2 NSs) as energy acceptor. In this system, MnO 2 NSs in-situ grew on g-C 3 N 4 NSs to form the 2D/2D heterostructure , greatly shortening the distance of the donor–acceptor pair (g-C 3 N 4 –MnO 2 ) and thus greatly enhancing the RET efficiency. To demonstrate the performance of the system, a signal “off-on” ECL sensor was designed for glutathione (GSH) analysis. In the absence of GSH, MnO 2 significantly quenched the ECL intensity of g-C 3 N 4 owing to ECL-RET in this 2D/2D g-C 3 N 4 /MnO 2 heterostructure (ECL signal “off”). Upon the addition of GSH, MnO 2 was reduced to Mn 2+ by GSH and g-C 3 N 4 was released from the heterostructured g-C 3 N 4 /MnO 2 , generating a recovery of ECL intensity (ECL signal “on”). Under the optimal conditions, the designed ECL-RET signal “off-on” sensor realized the sensitive detection of GSH ranged from 0.2–100 μM with the detection limit of 0.05 μM. Furthermore, the as-prepared ECL-RET sensor exhibits good performance in the determination of GSH in human serum samples. The ECL-RET in 2D/2D heterostructure provides an ingenious way for the exploitation of novel ECL biosensing systems.