Flow injection chemiluminescence determination of polyhydroxy phenols using luminol–ferricyanide/ferrocyanide system

It was found that the weak chemiluminescence produced from the reaction of polyhydroxy phenols with luminol in alkaline solution could be strongly enhanced by ferricyanide and ferrocyanide. Based on this found, a new flow injection chemiluminescence method is proposed for the determination of four polyhydroxy phenols: pyrogallol, phlorglucinol, quinol and resorcinol. The detection limits of the method are 0.03 μg ml−1 pyrogallol, 0.03 μg ml−1 phlorglucinol, 0.04 μg ml−1 quinol, and 0.02 μg ml−1 resorcinol. The possible mechanism of CL reactions is also discussed briefly.