Recent advances in Tetraphenylethylene-based aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence for biosensing applications

Tetraphenylethylene (TPE), a prominent aggregation-induced emission (AIE) emitter, has gained significant attention in the development of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensors due to its unique luminescent properties. The combination of AIE and ECL improves the ECL intensity and efficiency, making TPE-based systems ideal for high-sensitivity AIECL biosensing applications. This review discusses recent advances in TPE and its derivatives based small molecular materials (e.g., nanoaggregates, organic dots, silica and vesicles confined TPE-based materials) and polymers (e.g., polymer dots, metal-organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks) for biological applications. The AIECL principles of TPE-based materials are explored, which are mainly through molecular aggregation, spatial confinement and rigid structure to restrict the motions of TPE and reduce non-radiative transitions to realize high ECL emission. Finally, current challenges are addressed, along with perspectives on future directions to improve the performance and expand the applicability of TPE-based AIECL platforms in bioanalysis.