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Systematic studies on phenol derivatives facilitates an explanation of the enhancement or inhibition of the luminol-H2O2-horseradish peroxidase system chemiluminescence. Factors that govern the enhancement are the one-electron reduction potentials of the phenoxy radicals (PhO./PhOH) vs. luminol radicals (L./LH-) and the reaction rates of the phenol derivatives with the compounds of horseradish peroxidase (HRP-I and HRP-II). Only compounds with radicals with a similar or greater reduction potential than luminol at pH 8.5 (0.8V) can act as enhancers. Radicals with reduction potentials lower than luminol behave in a different way, because they destroy luminol radicals and inhibit chemiluminescence. The relations between the reduction potential, reaction rates and the Hammett constant of the substituent in a phenol suggest that 4-substituted phenols with Hammett constants (sigma) for their substituents similar or greater than 0.20 are enhancers of the luminol-H2O2-horseradish peroxidase chemiluminescence. In contrast, those phenols substituted in position 4 for substituents with Hammett constants (sigma) lower than 0.20 are inhibitors of chemiluminescence. On the basis of these studies, the structure of possible new enhancers was predicted.

We explored the behaviour of a series of phenolic acids used as enhancers or inhibitors of luminol chemiluminescence by three different methods to determine if behaviour was associated with phenolic acid structure and redox character. All the phenolic acids inhibited chemiluminescence when hexacyanoferrate (III) was reacted with the phenolic acids before adding luminol. The redox character of these compounds was clearly related to structure. When hexacyanoferrate(III)-luminol-O2 chemiluminescence was initiated by phenolic acid-luminol mixtures some phenolic acids behaved as enhancers of chemiluminescence, and others as inhibitors. We propose a mechanism to explain these findings. We found direct relationships between the redox character of the phenolic acids and the enhancement or inhibition of the chemiluminescence of the luminol-H2O2-peroxidase system and we propose mechanism to explain these phenomena.

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