Efficient Near‐Infrared Electrochemiluminescence from Au<sub>18</sub> Nanoclusters
Mahdi Hesari, Zhifeng Ding
Abstract
Abstract Bright, near‐infrared electrochemiluminescence (NIR–ECL) of Au 18 nanoclusters is reported herein. Spooling ECL and photoluminescence spectroscopy were used to track and link NIR emissions at 832 and 848 nm to three emissive species, Au 18 0 *, Au 18 1+ * and Au 18 2+ *, with a considerably high ECL efficiency of 5.5 relative to that of the gold standard Ru(bpy) 3 2+ /TPrA (with 5–6 % reported ECL efficiency). The unprecedentedly high efficiency is due to the overlapped oxidation potentials of Au 18 0 and tri‐ n ‐propylamine as co‐reactant, the exposed facets of Au 18 0 gold core, and electrocatalytic loops. These discoveries will add a new member to the efficient NIR‐ECL gold nanoclusters family and bring more potential applications.