Multicolor microwave-triggered metal-enhanced chemiluminescence

We describe a novel platform technology for both significantly enhancing and obtaining chemiluminescence signatures "on-demand", subsequently named Microwave-Triggered Metal-Enhanced Chemiluminescence. By combining the use of silver nanoparticles to plasmon enhance chemiluminescence with the use of low power microwaves to localize heating around the nanostructures, we can both optically amplify and trigger chemiluminescence reactions. This approach is a significant advantage over traditional chemiluminescence techniques and methodologies, such as those used for Western Blots, which typically require long periods of time to collect chemiluminescence and offer few possibilities of optically amplifying the signatures. Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society.