A sensitive flow injection chemiluminescence method for the determination of progesterone

A sensitive flow injection (FI) chemiluminescence (CL) method was developed for the determination of trace amounts of progesterone. This method was based on the luminescent properties of the tris(1,10-phenanthroline) ruthenium(II) - potassium permanganate (KMnO4 ) - progesterone in acidic medium sensitized by Na2 SO3 . With the peak height as a quantitative parameter applying optimum conditions, the relative CL intensity was linear with progesterone concentration in the range of 1.0 × 10(-10) ∼ 6.0 × 10(-9) g·ml(-1) and 6.0 × 10(-9) ∼ 4.0 × 10(-8) g·ml(-1) with a detection limit of 7.1 × 10(-11) g·ml(-1) . The relative standard deviation (RSD) was 2.79% for 1.0 × 10(-8) g·ml(-1) progesterone (n = 11). The proposed method held low detection limit and was successfully applied to determination of progesterone in pharmaceutical preparations. The possible CL reaction mechanism was also discussed.