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Electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of lucigenin is induced at oxide-coated aluminum electrodes in aqueous solution by cathodic pulse polarization. This ECL can be enhanced by the presence of coreactants such as peroxodisulfalte. The present method is based on the injection of hot electrons into the aqueous electrolyte solution, which probably results in the generation of hydrated electrons as reducing mediators. The successive one-electron redox reactions result in the excited states of lucigenin or its fragmentation products. The method can detect lucigenin over several orders of magnitude of concentration with detection limit below nanomolar concentration level. In addition, the relatively long lifetime of the ECL of lucigenin makes time-resolved detection possible. This study suggests that the derivatives of lucigenin can be utilized as electrochemiluminescent labels in aqueous solution in bioaffinity assays at thin insulating film-coated cathodes. The cathodic ECL reaction mechanisms are discussed.

A homogeneous immunoassay of T4 was developed using a semiautomatic electrochemiluminometer modified from a commercially available fluorometer. In addition, from the same analyte panel an immunometric immunoassay of TSH at similar disposable oxide-covered aluminum rake electrodes was studied using this instrument both on homogeneous and heterogeneous basis. Detection was based on hot electron-induced cathodic electrochemiluminescence utilizing a commercially available Tb(III) chelate label. The assays were reasonably sensitive and comparison was made with other older methods. Thus, it is possible to develop both non-competitive and competitive immunoassays based on detection of hot electron-induced ECL of the labels.

Reactive Al/OH − (aq) interface was studied and used as a source of chemical energy in the generation of chemiluminescence. The observed extrinsic lyoluminescence emission during dissolution of aluminum in an alkaline Tb(III) or Eu(III) chelate solution was clearly based either on 5 D 4 → 7 F J radiative transitions of Tb(III) or 5 D 0 → 7 F J transitions of Eu(III). In this process, these chelates were chemically excited via analogous one-electron redox pathways as known from extrinsic lyoluminescence of irradiated, electrolytically- or additively-colored alkali halides, and from hot electron-induced electrochemiluminescence. Calibration curves of Tb(III) chelates, peroxodisulfate and hydroxide ions were linear over several orders of magnitude of concentration. In addition, the method seems to be suitable for relatively rough chemical measurements of the thicknesses of aluminum oxide films free from trapped charges.

Synthesis, purification and characterization of [4-ethoxycarbonyl-4′-carboxy-2,2′-bipyridine]bis(2,2′-bipyridine) ruthenium(II) hexafluorophosphate is described. This complex is shown to be electrochemiluminescent in aqueous solution during cathodic pulse polarization of thin insulating film-coated electrodes. Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) lifetime of the complex was observed to be ca. 40 μs at oxide-coated n-silicon electrodes; thus time-resolved detection is also possible. The ECL emission maximum of this carboxylate derivative is somewhat red-shifted when compared with an unmodified Ru(bpy) 3 2+ . Because the present complex can be easily covalently coupled with antibodies and oligonucleotides it is usable as an electrochemiluminescent label in various bioaffinity assays. The present chelates also produce strong chemiluminescence during dissolution of metallic magnesium in aqueous solution.

Rhodamine B (RhB) exhibits strong cathodic electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) in aqueous solutions during high-amplitude pulse polarization at thin oxide film-coated aluminum electrodes. This method allows the detection of RhB below nanomolar concentration level and provides linear calibration plots spanning over several orders of magnitude of concentration. In addition, a relatively long ECL lifetime of RhB provides a basis for time-resolved detection. Thus, widely used RhB-based labels can also be suggested to be usable as electrochemiluminescent labels in fully aqueous solutions in bioaffinity assays such as in immunoassays and DNA-probing assays. Support was obtained for the chemiluminescence generation mechanism to be essentially the same as that of radiochemiluminescence in aqueous solution.

Time-resolved electrogenerated chemiluminescence of multidentate phenolic Eu(III) chelates were studied in aqueous solution. 2,6-bis[N,N-bis(carboxymethyl)-aminomethyl]-4-benzoylphenol forms a photoluminescent and electrochemiluminescent Eu(III) chelate, whereas 2,6-bis[N,N-bis(carboxymethyl)-aminomethyl]-4-methyl phenol-chelated Eu(III) turned out to be not luminescent at all. The importance of the redox properties of both the ground and the excited states of the ligands and the central ion is shown. The former chelate shows relatively weak ECL at an oxide-covered aluminum electrode but the ECL intensity can be strongly enhanced by the addition of peroxodisulfate ions. In the presence of 1 mM peroxodisulfate ions the ECL lifetime of this chelate is 0.94 ms, thus easily allowing time-resolved detection of the chelate. This chelate can be conjugated to antibodies by thioureido linkage and used as an electrochemiluminescent label in immunoassays as a marker which displays long-lived luminescence in the red end of the optical spectrum. The present ECL is mainly based on the ligand sensitized redox excitation of the chelate by analogous pathways to those known from the studies of aromatic Tb(III) chelates but the energy transfer from the emission centers of the aluminum oxide film can also have minor contribution to the excitation of the label.

Double insulating barrier tunnel emission electrodes were fabricated by adding a new pure aluminum layer upon oxidized aluminum electrodes by vacuum evaporation and thermally oxidizing the new aluminum layer in air at room temperature. Resulting Al/Al 2 O 3 /Al/Al 2 O 3 electrodes allow the use of various aluminum alloys in the electrode body necessary for hardness or shaping ability of the electrode while obtaining the luminescence properties of pure aluminum oxide. During electrical excitation of luminescent labels by cathodic hot electron injection into aqueous electrolyte solution, the background noise is mainly based on high-field-induced solid-state electroluminescence and F-center luminescence of the outer aluminum oxide film. The more defect states and/or impurity centers the outer oxide film contains, the higher is the background emission intensity. The present electrode fabrication method provides a considerable improvement in signal-to-noise ratio for time-resolved electrochemiluminescence (TR-ECL) measurements when the original native oxide film of the electrode body contains luminescence centers displaying long-lived luminescence. The excellent performance of the present electrodes is demonstrated by extremely low-level detection of Tb(III) chelates, luminol, Pt(II) coproporphyrin and Tb(III) labels in an immunometric immunoassay by time-resolved electrochemiluminescence.

Oxide-covered aluminium electrodes were used to demonstrate that aromatic compounds, such as the simple derivatives of benzene, can be electrochemically excited at cathodically pulse-polarized conductor/insulator/electrolyte (C/I/E) tunnel junction electrodes (e.g. oxide-covered aluminium electrodes). The primary cathodic process at these electrodes was a tunnel emission of hot electrons into an aqueous electrolyte solution. Fluorescence (FL) and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) spectra were compared and the dependence of the electrochemiluminescence on the concentrations of benzene, toluene, phenol, p-cresol and aniline were measured and detailed mechanisms for the present electrochemiluminescence are proposed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Strong electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of fluorescein is generated in aqueous solution during cathodic pulse polarization of oxide-covered aluminum electrodes. The present method is based on the injection of hot electrons into the aqueous electrolyte solution, which probably results in the generation of hydrated electrons as reducing mediators. The successive one-electron redox reactions result in fluorescein in its lowest excited singlet state, i.e., the emission spectrum is similar to the corresponding fluorescence emission spectrum. This ECL can be enhanced by added coreactants, e.g., by peroxodisulfate, peroxodiphosphate, hydrogen peroxide and azide ions. The method can detect fluorescein over several orders of magnitude of concentration with detection limit below nanomolar concentration level in the presence of azide ions. The results suggest that the derivatives of fluorescein, such as fluorescein isothiocyanate, can be used as electrochemiluminescent labels in aqueous solution in bioaffinity assays carried out on the surface of thin aluminum oxide film-coated aluminum electrodes. This cathodic ECL is mainly based on the one-electron oxidation of fluorescein by the cathodically produced oxidizing radicals followed by reduction of the formed semioxidized fluorescein by hot or hydrated electrons back to the original oxidation state which finally emits light.

Hot electrons can be injected from conductor/insulator/electrolyte (C/I/E) junctions into an aqueous electrolyte solution by cathodic pulse-polarization of the electrode. Injected hot electrons induce electrogenerated chemiluminescence of various luminophores including coumarins in fully aqueous solutions. This is based on the tunnel emission of hot electrons into aqueous electrolyte solution, which can result in the generation of hydrated electrons as reducing mediators. These tunnel-emitted electrons allow also the production of highly oxidizing radicals from added precursors. This work shows that coumarin derivatives are suitable candidates as ECL labels for bioaffinity assays or other analytical applications in which detection is based on the ECL of pulse-polarized C/I/E tunnel-emission electrodes in fully aqueous solutions. The mechanisms of the ECL of coumarins are discussed and the analytical applicability of the ECL of three coumarin derivatives is studied.

Cathodic DC polarization of oxide-covered aluminum produces electrogenerated chemiluminescence from hydrated and chelated Tb(III) ions in aqueous electrolyte solutions. At the moment of cathodic voltage onset, a strong cathodic flash is observed, which is attributed to a tunnel emission of hot electrons into the aqueous electrolyte solution and the successive chemical reactions with the luminophores. However, within a few milliseconds the insulating oxide film is damaged and finally dissolved due to (i) indiffusion of protons or alkali metal ions into the thin oxide film, (ii) subsequent hydrogen evolution at the aluminum/oxide interface and (iii) alkalization of the electrode surface induced by hydrogen evolution reaction. When the alkalization of the electrode surface has proceeded sufficiently, chemiluminescence is generated with increasing intensity. Aluminum metal, short-lived Al(II), Al(I) or atomic hydrogen and its conjugated base form, hydrated electron, can act as highly reducing species in addition to the less energetic heterogeneously transferred electrons from the aluminum electrode. Tb(III) added as a hydrated ion in the solution probably luminesces in the form of Tb(OH)3 or Tb(OH)4− by direct redox reactions of the central ion whereas multidentate aromatic ligand chelated Tb(III) probably luminesces by ligand sensitized chemiluminescence mechanism in which ligand is first excited by one-electron redox reactions, which is followed by intramolecular energy transfer to the central ion which finally emits light.

Atomic layer deposition was used to fabricate optically transparent tunnel emission electrodes for the purpose of generating electrogenerated chemiluminescence from aromatic Tb(III) chelates. Y 2 O 3 -coated aluminium-doped ZnO glass working electrodes proved to be suitable for injecting hot electrons into the electrolyte solution during cathodic pulse-polarisation of the electrode. Observed cathodic emission at these electrodes was clearly based on 5 D 4 → 7 F J radiative transitions of Tb(III) and calibration curves of Tb(III) chelates at these electrodes were found to be linear over several orders of magnitude of concentration down to subnanomolar levels when emission was monitored at 545 nm by a photon counting detector and using time-resolved detection.

Ruthenium(II) tris(2,2′-bipyridine) chelate shows chemiluminescence (CL) both during dissolution of metallic aluminium in alkaline conditions, and during dissolution of magnesium metal in acidic conditions. The presence of peroxodisulfate ions strongly enhances the CL. Magnesium system provides considerably better detectability of the present chelate giving linear calibration plot spanning over many orders of magnitude of concentration down to subnanomolar concentration levels. The possible primary species generated and luminescence mechanisms are shortly discussed.

High amplitude cathodic pulse polarization of ultra thin oxide film-coated heavily doped silicon electrodes induces tunnel emission of hot electrons into aqueous electrolyte solution, which probably results in the generation of hydrated electrons in the vicinity of the electrode surface. The method allows the detection of tris (2,2′-bipyridine) ruthenium(II) chelate at subnanomolar concentration level. This paper shows that both n- and p-type heavily doped silicon electrodes can be used, illustrates the effect of oxide film thickness upon the silicon electrode on the intensity of ECL of tris (2,2′-bipyridine) ruthenium(II) and discusses the basic features of tris (2,2′-bipyridine) ruthenium(II) chelate-specific ECL at these electrodes. Thin oxide film-coated silicon electrodes provide a lower blank emission and a higher ECL intensity of the present ruthenium chelate than oxide-covered aluminium electrodes. This suggests that thin oxide film-coated silicon is a very promising working electrode material, especially in microanalytical systems made fully or partly of silicon.

The luminescence lifetime of the electrochemiluminescence of luminol was studied at oxide-coated silicon and aluminum electrodes. In an undivided cell, the ECL was found to be produced only by cathodic processes, and luminol could be detected down to picomolar levels with time-resolved measurements.

Some of the luminescent aromatic Tb(III) chelates can be excited at oxide-covered magnesium and n-ZnO:Al/MgO composite electrodes by cathodic pulse polarization in aqueous solution. This is based on the cathodic injection of hot electrons into the aqueous electrolyte solution and successive redox reactions in one-electron steps resulting in the excited states of the chelates. Due to the relatively long luminescence lifetime of multidentate Tb(III) chelates, these chelates can be very sensitively detected by time-resolved electrochemiluminescence (TR-ECL) measurements using the present working electrodes. Thus, metal or highly doped semiconductor electrodes coated by a thin MgO film lend themselves as nontransparent or in some cases, even optically transparent working electrodes for generation of free radicals and cathodic ECL in aqueous solution. The results suggest that also other even more efficient optically transparent composite tunnel emission electrodes than the present n-ZnO:Al/MgO electrodes could be constructed by coating n-ZnO:Al glass electrodes with other wide band gap insulating oxides.