Organic nanoparticles for electrogenerated chemiluminescence assay

Organic nanoparticles (ONPs) are one type of nanoparticles assembled by the organic compounds with one dimension smaller than 100 nm. ONPs are alternative nanomaterials in organic light-emitting diode and analytical applications due to their unique optical and electrochemical properties. In electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) assays, ONPs are generally taken as signal reporters for chemical sensing and biosensing. In this opinion, we focus on recent developments of ONPs as ECL luminophores in analytical application. The types and ECL mechanisms of ONPs systems and the approaches of ONPs-based ECL methods are briefly introduced. New advances on the improvement of the ECL efficiency of ONPs are highlighted. The challenges and perspectives of ONPs-based ECL methods are discussed.