Confined Electrochemiluminescence at Microtube Electrode Ensembles for Local Sensing of Single Cells†.

Main observation and conclusion: Chemical analysis of single cells plays essential roles in both fundamental research and clinical applications. In this work, the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) generated at vertically aligned gold microtube electrode ensembles (MEEs) was applied for the local chemical sensing of single cells. Thanks to the structure of MEEs and the surface‐confined nature of ECL generation, the ECL is confined in single microtubes and the local variations of hydrogen peroxide concentration can be revealed by the changes of ECL signals at single MEEs. With this methodology, we studied the hydrogen peroxide efflux from single living cells, showing the subcellular heterogeneity in hydrogen peroxide release. With sufficient spatial resolution for the parallel single cell sensing as well as advantages including easy preparation and high throughput, the MEEs provide a promising platform for subcellular electroanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]