Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is evolving rapidly from a purely analytical technique into a powerful microscopy. Herein, we report the imaging of single cells by photoinduced ECL (PECL; em = 620 nm) stimulated by an incident near-infrared light (exc = 1050 nm). The cells were grown on a metal insulator semiconductor (MIS) n-Si/SiOx/Ir photoanode that exhibited stable and bright PECL emission. The large anti-Stokes shift allowed to record well-resolved images of cells with a high sensitivity. PECL microscopy is demonstrated at a remarkably low onset potential of 0.8 V, which contrasts with classic ECL which is blind at this potential. Two imaging modes are reported: (i) photoinduced positive ECL (PECL+), showing the cell membranes labeled with the [Ru(bpy)3]2+ complex and (ii) photoinduced shadow label-free ECL (PECL-) of cell morphology, with the luminophore in the solution. Finally, by adding a new dimension with the near-infrared light stimulus, PECL microscopy should find promising applications to image and to study single photoactive nanoparticles and biological entities.

This article is Open Access

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