Ultrasonic enhancement of electrochemiluminescence from arylacetate electrooxidation

This paper describes the previously unreported electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) from the electro-oxidation of several aryl carboxylates at a platinum flag electrode in aqueous, methanolic and acetonitrile solutions using tetramethylammonium hydroxides as a supporting electrolyte. In most cases electrochemiluminescence was markedly enhanced by simultaneous irradiation with ultrasound during electrolysis. Increase in electrochemiluminescence intensity with electrolysis current and carboxylate concentration was observed. Addition of a radical scavenger or purging of the solution with oxygen lowers ECL emission intensity. In contrast the presence of oxygen enhances the intensity of sonoluminescence, which is a concurrent but weaker process occurring under ultrasonic irradiation alone. Ring-substituted phenylacetates almost always produced less electrochemiluminescence than the unsubstituted parent molecule, though within the substituents studied chloro-substituted phenylacetates produced more ECL intensity than either methoxy- or nitro-substituted derivatives.