Nitrate enhanced electrochemiluminescence determination of tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) isocyanurate with a gold nanoparticles-modified goldelectrode

Abstract

Tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) isocyanurate (TBC) is a heterocyclic hexabrominated flame retardant, which cannot be degraded even over a long time and may be a potential environmental pollutant. In this paper, TBC is for the first time as far as we know determined by silver nitrate-enhanced electrochemiluminescence (ECL) using a gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)-modified gold electrode. In our experiments, TBC was found to have the characteristics of increasing the ECL intensity of Ru(bpy)₃²⁺, and the ECL signal was proportional to the concentration of TBC. Based on this, we have successfully developed a novel, fast and sensitive method for the analysis of TBC. The main influencing factors including the volume ratio of acetonitrile and water, and the concentration of Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ were investigated in detail. Compared with using a bare gold electrode in MeCN without AgNO₃, the limit of detection is remarkably lowered by 20 times and the linear range is expanded by 5 times by using the AuNPs-modified gold electrode and AgNO₃. Under the optimal conditions, a limit of detection of 5.0 × 10⁻⁸ M (S/N = 3) is achieved with a linear range of 1.0 × 10⁻⁷ to 5.0 × 10⁻⁵ M. The mechanism of the ECL enhancement of the system is also investigated.