Determination of phenol by flow-injection with chemiluminescence detection based on the hemin-catalysed luminol–hydrogen peroxide reaction

This study established a novel flow injection (FI) methodology for the determination of phenol in aqueous samples based on luminol chemiluminescence (CL) detection. The method was based on the inhibition that phenol caused on the hemin-catalysed chemiluminescence reaction between luminol and hydrogen peroxide in alkaline solution. Optimum conditions and possible mechanisms have been investigated. The linear range was 2.0 × 10−9 to 4.0 × 10−7 g mL−1 for phenol. The proposed method is sensitive with a detection limit of 4.0 × 10−10 g mL−1. The relative standard deviation for 11 measurements was 2.3% for 1.0 × 10−7g mL−1 phenol. The method was applied for the determination of phenol in waste water samples. The results obtained compared well with those by an official method.

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► Hemin-catalysed luminol chemiluminescence was used for determination of phenol.
► Maximum reaction velocity and Michaelis constant were calculated.
► The proposed method has lower detection limit.