Bipolar electrochemiluminescence at the water/organic interface

Abstract

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) has emerged as a valuable tool for understanding multiphasic and compartmentalized systems, which have crucial wide-ranging applications across diverse fields. However, ECL reactions are limited to the vicinity of the electrode surface due to spatial constraints of electron transfer and the short lifetime of radical species, making ECL emission in bulk multiphasic solution challenging. To address this limitation, we propose a novel bipolar electrochemistry (BPE) approach for wireless dual-color ECL emission at the water/organic (w/o) interface. Firstly, amphiphilic glassy carbon (GC) microbeads with distinct hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions are prepared by bipolar electrografting of hydrophobic trifluoromethyl diazonium salt, then the resulting Janus beads are positioned at the w/o interface. Subsequently, two model ECL systems containing luminol and H₂O₂ in the aqueous phase, and [Ru(bpy)₃]²⁺ and benzoyl peroxide (BPO) in the organic phase, are selected based on their solubility to confine light-emitting reactions to their respective phases. Upon application of an electric field perpendicular to the interface, the Janus microbeads get polarized, triggering simultaneous oxidative blue ECL (425 nm) and reductive red ECL (620 nm) in the aqueous and organic phases, respectively. Taking advantage of ECL imaging, the potential gradient distribution on the GC microbead at the w/o interface is revealed, indicating a “pseudo-closed” bipolar system due to limited ion transfer between phases. We also investigate the effect of changing the electric field direction parallel to the interface, which alters the ECL emission area from a hemisphere to a quarter of the microbead's surface. This bipolar ECL approach at the w/o interface not only offers opportunities for imaging the aqueous phase and organic phase simultaneously, but also enables ECL imaging and light generation in the bulk solution, thus overcoming the usual spatial limitation requiring proximity to the electrode surface.