Synthesis and electrochemiluminescence of a new iridium(III) complex

Abstract A new water-soluble iridium(III) diimine complex with appended glucose was synthesized and characterized. The photophysical properties and electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) behavior of the complex were studied. The new iridium(III) complex displayed good emission under the UV-light excitation in aqueous solution and gave out the strongest ECL signals on the glass carbon electrode in the presence of high concentration of tri-n-propylamine (TPA, 20 mM) compared to that on Au and Pt electrodes in phosphate buffer (pH = 7.5). But at low concentration of TPA (1.0 mM), the ECL intensity of the complex was close on the GC, Au and Pt electrodes. The ECL of the system had a good linearity with the TPA concentration from 0.1 μM to 1 mM with a limit of determination of 50 nM (S/N = 3).