Quenching of the electrochemiluminescence of Ru(bpy)32+/TPA by malachite green and crystal violet

► Malachite green (MG) and crystal violet (CV) quenched the ECL of Ru(bpy)32+/TPA. ► A novel quenching mechanism (QM) was proposed. ► Resonance energy transfer from Ru(bpy)32+⁎ to MG/CV was suggested as the QM. ► We also studied the quenching effeciency between Ru(bpy)32+ and MG/CV. ► A highly sensitive ECL quenching method for the detection of MG/CV was proposed.