Highly stable Ru-complex-based metal-covalent organic frameworks as novel type of electrochemiluminescence emitters for ultrasensitive biosensing.

Developing novel types of high-performance electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emitters is of great significance for constructing ultrasensitive ECL sensors. Herein, a highly stable metal-covalent organic framework (MCOF), termed Ru-MCOF, has been devised and synthesized by employing a classic ECL luminophore, tris(4,4'-dicarboxylicacid-2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) (Ru(dcbpy)), as building unit and applied as a novel ECL probe to construct an ultrasensitive ECL sensor for the first time. Impressively, the topologically ordered and porous architectures of the Ru-MCOF not only allow Ru(bpy) units to precisely locate and homogeneously distribute in the skeleton strong covalent bonds but also facilitate the transport of co-reactants and electrons/ions in channels to promote the electrochemical activation of both external and internal Ru(bpy) units.