Design and fabrication of a micro-electrochemiluminescent cell for the study of ionic liquid-mediated electrochemiluminescence

In this paper, a novel micro-electrochemiluminescent (μ-ECL) cell with volume less than 100 μl was designed and fabricated. A special configuration of the three-electrode system, in which the counter and reference electrodes were integrated on a Perspex optical window while the working electrode was placed opposite to the optical window, has greatly decreased the amount of reagents required for ECL measurements. In the μ-ECL cell, large size working electrode was still applicable, which maintained ECL detect sensitivity while consuming a small amount of sample. In addition, the immobilization of the working electrode by a special adjusting device facilitated not only the detachment of the working electrode for treatment but also accurate orientation of the electrode, consequently improved ECL reproducibility. Finally, ECL of luminol in ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate was used to evaluate this μ-ECL cell.