Characterization of the low-oxidation-potential electrogenerated chemiluminescence of tris(2,2′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) with tri-n-propylamine as coreactant

The electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of the Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ (bpy, 2,2′-bipyridine)/tri-n-propylamine (TPrA) system can be produced at an oxidation-potential well before the oxidation of Ru(bpy)₃²⁺. Here, we describe the unique features of the low-oxidation-potential (LOP) ECL. The LOP ECL exhibited strong dependence on solution pH with the maximum emission at pH  7.7. Compared with the conventional ECL, the LOP ECL was much more significantly diminished at high pH (>10), probably due to the short lifetime of TPrA cation radical which is a crucial intermediate for the LOP emission. It was also found that the preceding deprotonation step played an important role in TPrA oxidation at neutral pH and would remarkably influence the emission intensity. As excess intermediate radicals were produced upon rapid TPrA oxidation, only 5 mM TPrA was needed to achieve the maximum LOP ECL intensity in detecting trace Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ (<1 μM) and the LOP ECL response to Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ concentration was linear. Compared with the conventional Ru(bpy)₃²⁺/TPrA ECL, the LOP ECL technique not only produces higher emission intensity at lower oxidation-potential, but also significantly reduces the amount of the coreactant.