Electrogenerated chemiluminescence at boron-doped diamond electrodes.

Electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) refers to the phenomenon of light emission from molecular species which is triggered by an electrochemical reaction. Therefore, like most electrochemical systems, the electrode material plays a pivotal role and much effort has been made in order to find the best material for ECL, in terms of light signal intensity and long-term stability, especially after the development of ECL for analytical applications. In this article, we will introduce and highlight the distinctive features of boron-doped diamond (BDD) as an electrode material for ECL which has complementary properties compared to the most common metals (e.g., Au or Pt) and carbon materials (e.g., glassy carbon, carbon nanotubes and graphene). Boron-doped diamond electrodes emerged as novel electrodes, gaining more and more interest from the electrochemical community for their peculiar characteristics such as a wide solvent window, low capacitance, resistance to fouling and mechanical robustness. Furthermore, compared to metal electrodes, BDD does not form an oxide layer in aqueous solutions, and the sp3 carbon hybridization gives BDD the ability to enable peculiar electrochemical reactions that are not possible on sp2 carbon materials. Electrogenerated chemiluminescence investigations with boron-doped diamond electrodes have been reported for common ECL systems (luminophores and co-reactants), and special ECL that is only possible on BDD which includes the in situ electrochemical generation of the co-reactant.

Simultaneous electrochemical detection of ozone and free chlorine with a boron-doped diamond electrode.

O3 and free chlorine play significant roles in disinfection and organic degradation. There are numerous reports about their mixed-use, yet detection of the residual concentrations is not easily accomplished, whilst the interactions between them remain unclear. Herein, we develop a detection method using a boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode to achieve the simultaneous determination of O3 and free chlorine, which benefits from the unique property of the wide potential window of BDD electrodes. It is indicated that O3 can always be accurately determined at 0.35 V vs. Ag/AgCl in an acidic solution (pH = 4-5), whether or not free chlorine is present in the solution, whereas free chlorine can be precisely monitored at -0.78 V vs. Ag/AgCl only after the O3 is completely depleted. Furthermore, in a basic solution (pH = 9-10), the reduction peak of O3 at 0.57 V vs. Ag/AgCl promptly disappears accompanied by a decrease in the peak current of free chlorine at 1.41 V. All the phenomena observed in the acidic and basic solutions are concurrently confirmed in a quasi-neutral solution. Based on these complementary measurements, a mechanism is proposed, in which the O3 reduction results in partial oxidation of the BDD surface, hindering the reduction of free chlorine in the acidic mixture; whereas O3 reacts quickly with free chlorine in the basic solution, which causes the co-consumption of both of them. It is hoped these results will give us a guide as to how better utilize mixtures and more precisely simultaneously determine O3 and free chlorine in the mixture.