Thermal catalysis induced chemiluminescence and its application for determination of volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons

Abstract

In the present work, a novel thermal catalysis induced chemiluminescence (TC-CL) technique was developed for selective determination of volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons (VCHs). Thermal catalysis of volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons on the surface of a polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE) tube at the temperature of 210 °C has been easily carried out, and the products of catalytic oxidization can arouse intensive chemiluminescence emission in a luminol solution. By coupling with gas chromatography, a simple methodology has been developed for simultaneous detection of chlorinated hydrocarbons including tetrachloromethane, chloroform, dichloromethane and 1,2-dichloroethane. Under optimized conditions, the linear range of tetrachloromethane is 0.103–10.4 μmol with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.034 μmol, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) of 4.15 μmol tetrachloromethane is less than 5% (n = 6). This novel methodology features the advantages of simple construction, rapid analysis, long life-time and high selectivity for chlorinated hydrocarbon detection.