Evaluation of fluorescent compounds for peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence detection

The behaviour of 19 fluorescent compounds of various types in peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence reactions was studied in terms of the relation of their excitation efficiency to their singlet excitation energy and oxidation potential. Compounds having low singlet excitation energy and low oxidation potential were excited effectively. As a result of the study, 3-aminoperylene was selected as a fluorophore for derivatization of simple car?ylic acids. The derivatives were separated by reversed-phase microbore h.p.l.c. and were detected by a peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence reaction detector. The detection limit was 0.1 fmol.