Chemiluminescence determination of barbituric acid using Ru(phen)(3)(2+)-Ce(IV) system.

A chemiluminescence (CL) method for the determination of barbituric acid (BA) was proposed, which is based on the enhancement of BA to the CL intensity of Tris-(1,10-phenanthroline)ruthenium(II) (Ru(phen)(3)(2+))-cerium(IV) (Ce(IV)) system. The concentration of BA is proportional to the CL intensity in the range of 5.0 x 10(-3)-2.0 microg ml(-1). The detection limit is 6.9 x 10(-4) microg ml(-1). The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) of determining 11 samples containing 0.20 microg ml(-1) BA is 3.2%. This CL method has been successfully applied to the determination of BA in the synthetic samples. The mechanism of CL reaction was studied.