A mini-review on the applications of conductive polymers in electrochemiluminescent sensors

Along with the development of technology and society's application needs, people investigate electrochemical analysis progressively. Electrochemiluminescence (ECL), as one of the significant methods for electrochemical analysis, exhibits the strengths of rapid analysis, excellent sensitivity, wide linear range, high selectivity, and low detection limits. Conductive polymers (CPs) have been extensively applied to construct ECL sensors in recent years due to their superior conductivity, biocompatibility, and electrochemical activity. In this review, we summarize recent advances in CPs-based ECL sensors. According to the different roles of CPs in ECL sensors, four aspects of CPs as immobilized carriers, ECL quenchers, luminescent materials, and ECL copolymers are described, respectively. In addition, the challenges and prospects of CPs-based ECL sensors are discussed.