Determination of catechol in water based on gold nanoclusters-catalyzed chemiluminescence

In this paper, a novel chemiluminescence (CL) system is introduced based on the reaction of fluorescein and H2O2 in alkaline medium. Gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) were synthesized using a facile BSA-stabilized method and were then applied to the fluorescein-H2O2 system for the first time, which effectively enhanced the intensity of the CL system. The addition of trace level of catechol into the CL system caused significant quenching of luminescence intensity. At optimal experimental conditions, the decreased CL intensity exhibited a favorable linear relation with catechol concentration. Based on this inhibitory phenomenon, a flow injection CL method with good selectivity was developed for determining catechol. A possible reaction mechanism was also proposed according to results of the kinetic curves of Au NCs in fluorescein-H2O2 CL system, radical scavengers and the spectra of CL, fluorescent and UV-visible. Finally, this method has been successfully used for the analysis of catechol in environmental water samples.