Electrochemiluminescence from successive electro- and chemo-oxidation of rifampicin and its application to the determination of rifampicin in pharmaceutical preparations and human urine

A novel electrochemiluminescence (ECL) type was proposed based on successive electro- and chemo-oxidation of oxidable analyte, which was different from both annihilation and coreactant ECL types in mechanism. Rifampicin was used as a model compound. No any chemiluminescence (CL) was produced by either electrochemical oxidation or chemical oxidation of rifampicin in KH2PO4-Na2B4O7 (pH 6.6) buffer-dodecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (DTAC) solution. However, an ECL was observed by electrochemical oxidization of rifampicin in the same solution in the presence of oxidant such as dissolved oxygen, activated oxygen and potassium peroxydisulfate (K2S2O8). The ECL was attributed to electrochemical oxidation of rifampicin to form semiquinone free radical, and then subsequently chemical oxidation of the formed radical by oxidant to form excited state rifampicin quinone. The proposed ECL type introduced additional advantages such as high selectivity, simple and convenient operation, and effective avoidance of side reaction that often took place in homogenous CL reaction, and will open a novel application field. In addition, with the ECL in the presence of K2S2O8 as oxidant, a flow injection ECL method for the determination of rifampicin was proposed. The ECL intensity was linear with rifampicin concentration in the range of 1.0 × 10−7 to 4.0 × 10−5 mol l−1 and the limit of detection (s/n = 3) was 3.9 × 10−8 mol l−1. The proposed method was applied to the determination of rifampicin in pharmaceutical preparations and human urine.