Determination of bisphenol A in water via inhibition of silver nanoparticles-enhanced chemiluminescence

Sensitive detection of trace bisphenol A (BPA) in water samples has been accomplished via inhibition of luminol chemiluminescence (CL) by BPA on the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)-enhanced luminol–KMnO4 CL system for the first time. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the CL intensity was found to be proportional to the concentration of BPA ranging from 1.0 × 10−8 to 5.0 × 10−5 g L−1. The detection limit (3σ) was estimated to be 1 × 10−9 g L−1. Such a concentration level is approximately 1–4 orders of magnitude lower than those reported by other methods. The feasibility of the method for determination of BPA in real water samples has been demonstrated. Via examining CL and UV–vis spectra of the CL system, possible mechanism inherent in the AgNPs-enhanced CL assay and the follow-up inhibition of BPA on the above system was proposed. The method described herein is simple, selective and obviates the need of extensive sample pretreatment.