Electrogenerated chemiluminescence in systems with tetraphenylborate anion as a co-reactant

Abstract

The study of electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) in aqueous and non-aqueous media with tetraphenylborate anion as a co-reactant is reported. The obtained results indicate that tetraphenylborate acts according to an oxidative reduction scheme and forms a strong reducer after being homogeneously oxidized by a radical cation or dication of luminophore. Spectral measurements prove that light emission originates from the luminophore present in solution and practically no emission occurs when only tetraphenylborate ion is oxidized at the electrode. Since the tetraphenylborate ion is a well known analytical reactant and precipitates a number of metal and organic cations its electrochemiluminescent detection can be used for their assay. It can also be applied as an efficient co-reactant for electrogenerated chemiluminescence excitation both in aqueous and non-aqueous media.