Determination of diethylstilbestrol by enhancement of luminol–hydrogen peroxide– tetrasulfonated cobalt phthalocyanine chemiluminescence

The ability of diethylstilbestrol to enhance the chemiluminescence reaction of luminol–H2O2, catalyzed by tetrasulfonated cobalt phthalocyanine in an alkaline medium, has been exploited to develop a new flow injection chemiluminescence method for the determination of diethylstilbestrol. Under the optimum conditions, the linearity of the calibration graph for the determination of diethylstilbestrol was in the range from 1.00×10^-7 to 4.00×10^-6 mol/l. The assay was sensitive (the detection limit was 6.42×10^-8 mol/l, S/N=3), reproducible (the relative standard deviation was 2.6%, n=11), and accurate (recovery up to 92%). The method has been successfully applied to the determination of diethylstilbestrol in the pharmaceutical formulations. Dienestrol and hexestrol were specifically alkylphenols, which are similar to diethylstilbestrol, could be detected by this method. Furthermore, the enhanced mechanism of estrogen-like compounds was also discussed in this paper.