Mingyue Chen, Shanshan Cong, Yuzhu Sun, Ruijie Qin, Ying Liu, Hongfei Ji, Man Jiang, Xiyan Li, Libing Zhang, Ruizhong Zhang
Tryptophan/arginine-derived carbonized polymer dots were synthesized to reveal confined-domain crosslinking-enhanced photoluminescence (PL) and electrochemiluminescence (ECL). Structural, electrochemical, and in situ spectroscopic studies assign blue PL to confined high-energy molecular/sub-domain states and near-infrared ECL to electrochemically populated surface/interfacial states, enabling sensitive alpha-fetoprotein biosensing without additional amplification.