Study on Chemiluminescence Assay of Surfactant PEG-400 Using Luminol–Hydrogen Peroxide System

Abstract Based on the fact that nonionic surfactant polyethylene glycol-400 (PEG-400) catalyzed the chemiluminescence of luminol-H2O2 system, a novel and simple chemiluminescence method has been developed for the determination of PEG-400. Under the optimal conditions, the standard curve was Y = 198835X–2091.8, where the correlation coefficient (R) was 0.9999. The detection limit was 4 × 10−5 g·ml−1 PEG-400 and the linear range was 1.0 × 10−4–4.0 × 10−2g·ml−1. The relative standard deviation was 3.2% at 2.0 × 10−3 g·ml−1 PEG-400 (n = 7). This method has been applied to the determination of PEG-400 in cosmetic samples with satisfactory results. Furthermore, the dynamics characteristic curve of PEG-400 in luminol-H2O2 system was compared to typical metallic ion and other surfactants. Moreover, the mechanism of the luminol-H2O2-PEG-400 chemiluminescence system was studied, assisted by fluorescence spectra and UV spectra.