Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence with Peroxydisulfate as a Coreactant Using Boron Doped Diamond Electrodes

We report on the use of boron doped diamond electrodes for the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of the coreactant peroxydisulfate and the luminophore ruthenium(II)-tris(2,2'-bipyridine). Compared to common electrode materials (i.e., Pt, Au, glassy carbon), boron doped diamond has a large overpotential for the evolution of hydrogen in aqueous electrolyte solutions. This intrinsic feature enables reductive-oxidation ECL with peroxydisulfate to be obtained without interference from hydrogen evolution and with high reproducible signals and stable emission. We investigated the effects of the peroxydisulfate concentration and the pH on the ECL emission to find the optimal conditions for enhancing the signal.