Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Analysis and Testing https://doi.org/10.1007/s41664-020-00143-y ORIGINAL PAPER Electrochemiluminescence of Bare Glassy Carbon with Benzoyl Peroxide as the Coreactant in N,N‑Dimethylformamide ShuiJian He 1,2  · Kenneth Chu 2  · Jonathan Michael Wong 2  · Liu‑Qing Yang 2  · Jonathan Ralph Adsetts 2  · Rui‑Zhong Zhang 2,3  · Yan‑Hua Chen 2  · Zhi‑Feng Ding 2 Received: 10 May 2020 / Accepted: 29 June 2020 © The Nonferrous Metals Society of China 2020 Abstract The electrochemiluminescence (ECL) properties of many carbon materials have been reported with glassy carbon (GC), Pt, Au or indium tin oxide (ITO) as the working electrode (WE). As one type of carbon materials, GC itself can generate ECL signal. Some research groups have already noticed the ECL signal from GC WE and reported the results of GC WE with respect to their luminophores. However, comprehensive analyses of ECL properties of GC WE are rare. Herein, the ECL properties of GC WE in organic electrolyte with benzoyl peroxide as the coreactant are reported. Our results are of great importance to distinguish the true ECL data of luminophores from that of GC. Graphic Abstract Sky-blue light was generated in the electrochemiluminescence process of bare glassy carbon working electrode with benzoyl peroxide as the coreactant. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s41664-020-00143-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Zhi-Feng Ding zfding@uwo.ca 1 College of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center of Efcient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China 2 Department of Chemistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada 3 Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Photoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China