Ultrasensitive determination of bisphenol A in water by inhibition of copper nanoclusters-enhanced chemiluminescence from the luminol–KMnO4 system

Abstract

In the present work, a highly sensitive chemiluminescence (CL) system for determination of trace bisphenol A (BPA) was established. The method was based on the inhibitory effect of luminol CL by BPA on the Cu NCs-enhanced luminol–KMnO₄ CL system for the first time. Water-soluble Cu NCs capped with BSA were synthesized. Under the optimized conditions, the inhibited CL intensity was proportional to the concentration of BPA ranging from 1.0 × 10⁻⁹ to 1.0 × 10⁻⁵ mol L⁻¹, with a detection limit (3σ) of 1.2 × 10⁻¹⁰ mol L⁻¹. It indicated that the concentration level is lower by almost 1–3 orders of magnitude compared with alternatives. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of the method was 1.7% with 9 repeated measurements of 1.0 × 10⁻⁶ mol L⁻¹ BPA. The proposed method has also been applied to determine BPA in water samples with good accuracy and precision. The CL spectra, UV-visible spectroscopy and radical scavengers were conducted to explore the possible mechanism.