Development of Miniaturized Electrochemiluminescence Instrument using Multi-pixel Photon Counter as the Optical Detector

We developed a miniaturized electrochemiluminescence (ECL) instrument coupled with a light-emitting diode-based bipolar electrochemical sensor (LED-BPES). This instrument composes of a microcontroller circuit, a power supply circuit, a potentiostat, an optical detecting circuit, and a communication circuit. The multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC), which is low-cost, small-size, and wide-range in optical measurements, is chosen as the optical detector. The LED-BPES composes of a disposable screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) and a surface-mount red LED. Depended on the closed bipolar electrode (C-BPE) structure, the LED-BPES not only avoids the employment of unstable and complex ECL reactions but also offers a cost-effective alternative for the over-priced ECL reagents by using a mini-size commercial LED as the luminescent producer. The combination of MPPC and LED-BPES helps to set up the simplified and downsized instrument system with low price and high efficiency. The presented instrument coupled with LED-BPES works excellent in electroactive molecules detection and has great potential in the application of heavy metal ions detection.