Water as a Coreactant for Chemiluminescence via Contact-Electro-Catalysis

Conventional luminol chemiluminescence (CL) is typically generated in luminophore solutions, but its development and practical application are constrained by the inherent limitations of coreactants. Herein, inspired by contact-electro-catalysis (CEC), we have developed a CEC-based CL system, denoted as contact-electro-catalysis chemiluminescence (CECL), which overcomes the limitations of coreactants in conventional CL systems. Water can serve directly as a coreactant, eliminating the need for hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) in luminol CL systems, and the CECL system consists of only luminophore solution, dielectric polymer particles, and an ultrasound source. Furthermore, we have found that the CECL mechanism involves the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from water through the reverse oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process, which subsequently react with luminol to produce CECL signals. Lastly, CECL not only introduces a CEC-based system for CL systems but also provides a promising approach for biochemical detection and information encryption. This work successfully integrates CEC with CL technology and opens up a promising direction for CL development.