Strategies of tailored nanomaterials for electrochemiluminescence signal enhancements

Nanomaterials and their applications were studied extensively over the past few decades due to their properties which are associated mainly with the nanoscale sizes and unique characteristics that they have. Among many applications, these nanomaterials have been playing great, multifaceted roles in increasing the analytical performances of electrochemiluminescence (ECL). In this article, we review the main possible approaches – based on nanoparticles – to modify the photophysical properties of the excited state generated as a consequence of the electrochemical stimulus and in particular taking profit of the so-called metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) and resonance energy transfer (RET) processes. We believe that these strategies will lead to the design of very efficient systems that can substantially increase the possible successful applications of ECL.