A solid-state electrochemiluminescence biosensing switch for detection of DNA hybridization based on ferrocene-labeled molecular beacon

A solid-state electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensing switch incorporating quenching of ECL of ruthenium(II) tris-(bipyridine) (Ru(bpy)32+) by ferrocene (Fc) has been successfully developed for DNA hybridization detection. The important issue for this biosensing system is based on the ferrocene-labeled molecular beacon (Fc-MB), i.e. using the special Fc-MB to react with the target DNA and then change its structure, resulting in an ECL intensity change. Under the optimal conditions, the difference of ECL intensity before and after the hybridization reaction (ΔIECL) was linearly related to the concentration of the complementary sequence in the range of 10 fM–10 pM and the detection limit was down to 1.0 fM.