ORIGINAL PAPER Rotating disk electrode-based investigation of electroluminescence of tris(2,2 0 -bipiridin)dichlorruthenium(II)hexahydrate, luminol, and N-(4-aminobuthyl)-N-ethyl-isoluminol Dominykas Juknelevicius 1 • Lina Mikoliunaite 1 • Almira Ramanaviciene 2 • Arunas Ramanavicius 1,3 Received: 4 August 2016 / Accepted: 15 October 2016 / Published online: 19 December 2016 Ó Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences 2016 Abstract Electrochemically induced luminescence (ECL) is an attractive analytical technique, which could be used for many applications. Introduction of reactants and/or removal of formed products both are very important issues in the most ECL-based systems. The introduction/removal of chemicals could be achieved by flow-through cells. Flow-through cells are not efficient in all designs of ECL systems. Therefore, rotating disk electrode (RDE) could be a valuable alternative, which could increase the efficiency of ECL-based devices. In this work, the RDE was used for the evaluation of electroluminescence of tris(2,2 0 - bipiridin)dichlorruthenium(II)hexahydrate ([Ru(bpy) 3 ] 2? ), 5-Amino-2,3-dihydro-1,4-phthalazinedione (luminol), and N-(4-aminobuthyl)-N-ethyl-isoluminol (ABEI). Detection limits, optimal pH and potential values, and emission spectra were determined for each compound. Graphical abstract Keywords Electroluminescence  Rotating disk electrode  Luminol  ABEI  Ruthenium  Chelate  Chemiluminescence  Spectrophotometry Introduction Chemiluminescence is described as emission of light by chemically excited product of a chemical reaction when it relaxes to the ground state (Richter 2004; Miao 2008; Handley et al. 1997). The efficiency of chemiluminescence reaction is mostly characterized by the quantum yield U, which is a measure of the fraction of reacting molecules and the ones that actually emit light (Richter 2004; Miao 2008). Electrochemically induced luminescence (ECL) is a type of chemiluminescence, in which the electrochemical (oxidation/reduction) reaction is followed by a & Arunas Ramanavicius arunas.ramanavicius@chf.vu.lt 1 Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Vilnius University, Naugarduko st. 24, 03225 Vilnius, Lithuania 2 Department of Environmental and Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Vilnius University, Naugarduko st. 24, 03225 Vilnius, Lithuania 3 Laboratory of NanoBioTechnology, Institute of Semiconductor Physics, State Research Institute Centre for Physical and Technological Sciences, A. Gostauto g. 11, 01108 Vilnius, Lithuania 123 Chem. Pap. (2017) 71:905–912 DOI 10.1007/s11696-016-0010-x