Enhanced luminol chemiluminescence by MoO₃/POM NRs for sensitive detection of hydroquinone

We successfully synthesized MoO₃/POM NRs, an efficient catalyst which could notably enhance luminol CL. MoO₃/POM NRs were found to catalyze dissolved oxygen to generate a large amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS), enabling the oxidation of luminol and then the production of chemiluminescence (CL) signals without adding other oxidants. Compared to the luminol-precursor and original luminol-dissolved oxygen systems, the signal intensity was enhanced by 100-fold and 1000-fold, respectively. Hydroquinone (HQ), a molecular with the antioxidant properties, could quenche the CL signal of luminol-MoO₃/POM NRs system. Based on this, we developed a rapid, sensitive, and accurate luminol-MoO₃/POM NRs CL sensing platform for HQ detection and it exhibited a low detection limit of 0.087 μmol·L^-1. What's more, this CL sensor was successfully applied to detect HQ in lake water and tap water, it not only expanded the application scope of molybdenum oxide-based nanomaterials in CL analysis but also provided new opportunities for the development of novel CL catalysts.