Determination of bisphenol A based on chemiluminescence from gold(III)–peroxymonocarbonate

Peroxymonocarbonate (HCO4−) was produced by the online reaction of bicarbonate with hydrogen peroxide. A strong chemiluminescence (CL) was observed when HCO4− reacted with AuCl4− without any special CL reagent. When bisphenol A (BPA) was added to AuCl4−–HCO4− CL system, the CL emission was inhibited significantly. This new CL system was developed as a flow-injection method for the determination of BPA. Under the optimum experimental conditions, the inhibited CL intensity was linearly related to the concentration of BPA from 0.3 to 80 μM (R = 0.9958). The detection limit of BPA was 0.08 μM. The relative standard deviation for 12 repeated measurements of 1.0 μM BPA was 2.9%. The interferences of some cationic ions can be removed by an online cation-exchange column. The applicability of the present CL system was demonstrated for the sensitive and selective determination of BPA in real samples (mineral water bottle, baby bottle, beverage bottle and polycarbonate container). Based on the CL spectrum, UV–visible adsorption spectra, and the quenching effect of reactive oxygen species scavengers, a possible CL mechanism was proposed.