Electrochemiluminescence reaction pathways in nanofluidic devices

Nanofluidic electrochemical devices confine the volume of chemical reactions to femtoliters. When employed for light generation by electrochemiluminescence (ECL), nanofluidic confinement yields enhanced intensity and robust luminescence. Here, we investigate different ECL pathways, namely coreactant and annihilation ECL in a single nanochannel and compare light emission profiles. By high-resolution imaging of electrode areas, we show that different reaction schemes produce very different emission profiles in the unique confined geometry of a nanochannel. The confrontation of experimental results with finite element simulation gives further insight into the exact reaction ECL pathways. We find that emission strongly depends on depletion, geometric exclusion, and recycling of reactants in the nanofluidic device.