A low-cost system to generate, control and detect electrochemiluminescence using a mobile smartphone is described. A simple tone-detection integrated circuit is used to switch power sourced from the phone's Universal Serial Bus (USB) ‘On-The-Go’ (OTG) port, using audible tone pulses played over the device's audio jack. We have successfully applied this approach to smartphones from different manufacturers and with different operating system versions. ECL calibrations of a common luminophore, tris(2,2′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) ([Ru(bpy)₃]²⁺), with 2-(dibutylamino)ethanol (DBAE) as a co-reactant, showed no significant difference in light intensities when an electrochemical cell was controlled by a mobile phone in this manner, compared to the same calibration generated using a conventional potentiostat. Combining this novel approach to control the applied potential with the measurement of the emitted light through the smart phone camera (using an in-house built Android app), we explored the ECL properties of a water-soluble iridium(III) complex that emits in the blue region of the spectrum. The iridium(III) complex exhibited superior co-reactant ECL intensities and limits of detection to that of the conventional [Ru(bpy)₃]²⁺ luminophore.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	development of low cost sensing strategies, smartphone sensor, mobile phone sensor, portable analytical devices, electrogenerated chemiluminescence, electrochemiluminescence
Research Division:	Chemical Sciences
Research Group:	Analytical chemistry
Research Field:	Sensor technology (incl. chemical aspects)
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the chemical sciences
UTAS Author:	Barbante, GJ (Dr Gregory Barbante)
ID Code:	103712
Year Published:	2015
Web of Science® Times Cited:	60
Deposited By:	Chemistry
Deposited On:	2015-10-26
Last Modified:	2015-11-16
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