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Updated: Sep 7, 2025

A Novel Technique for Generating and Observing Chemiluminescence in a Biological Setting
Published on: March 9, 2017
Insights into electrochemiluminescence dynamics by synchronizing real-time electrical, luminescence, and mass
Xuemeng Zhang1, Weifeng Lu1, Cheng Ma1,2
1State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Chemistry and Biomedicine Innovation Center, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University Nanjing 210023 P. R. China minqianhao@nju.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) comprises a sophisticated cascade of reactions. Despite advances in mechanistic studies by electrochemistry and spectroscopy, a lack of access to dynamic molecular information renders many plausible ECL pathways unclear or unproven. Here we describe the construction of a real-time ECL mass spectrometry (MS) platform (RT-Triplex) for synchronization of dynamic electrical, luminescent, and mass spectrometric outputs during ECL events. This platform allows immediate and continuous sampling of newly born species at the Pt wire electrode of a capillary electrochemical (EC) microreactor into MS, enabling characterization of short-lived intermediates and the multi-step EC processes. Two ECL pathways of luminol are validated by observing the key intermediates α-hydroxy hydroperoxide and diazaquinone and unraveling their correlation with applied voltage and ECL emission. Moreover, a "catalytic ECL route" of boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) involving homogeneous oxidation of tri-n-propylamine with the BODIPY radical cation is proposed and verified.
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