Electrogenerated chemiluminescence reaction of lucigenin with isatin at a platinum electrode.

The electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) reaction of lucigenin with isatin was investigated at a platinum electrode in a neutral aqueous solution. The ECL intensity of lucigenin at -0.65 V was greatly enhanced by isatin, and the ECL intensity was about 50 times higher than that of lucigenin without isatin. The enhanced ECL was believed to be produced by the chemiluminescence reaction between reduced lucigenin and superoxide anion that was generated by the reaction of electrochemically reduced isatin with dissolved oxygen. The conditions for the determination of isatin were optimized. Under the optimized condition, the enhanced ECL intensity vs. isatin concentration was linear in the range 4.8 x 10(-7)-1.9 x 10(-5) g/mL; with a detection limit of 3.3 x 10(-8) g/mL, and the relative standard derivation 1.0 x 10(-6) g/mL isatin was 3.8%.