Efficient lucigenin/thiourea dioxide chemiluminescence system and its application for selective and sensitive dopamine detection

Thiourea dioxide, a well-known eco-friendly, stable and cost-effective industrial reductant, has been used as the coreactant of lucigenin chemiluminescence for the first time. This chemiluminescence system is highly efficient, and its chemiluminescence peak intensity is about 75 times higher than that of the famous lucigenin/H 2 O 2 system. Interestingly, dopamine dramatically suppresses the chemiluminescence of lucigenin/thiourea dioxide system. Based on this newly-developed system, highly sensitive detection of dopamine, lucigenin, and thiourea dioxide was achieved. The linear ranges are 20–800   nM, 20   nM–0.1   mM, and 0.01–10   mM for dopamine, lucigenin, and thiourea dioxide, respectively. The detection limits are 14.7   nM, 8.0   nM, and 2.4   μM for dopamine, lucigenin, and thiourea dioxide, respectively. Moreover, this method shows excellent selectivity for the detection of dopamine against many compounds, such as ascorbic acid, uric acid, amino acids and sugars. This study suggests that the newly-found user-friendly lucigenin/thiourea dioxide system is a promising chemiluminescence system with broad applications.