Pyrolyzed bamboo electrode for electrogenerated chemiluminescence of Ru(bpy)32+

A novel, ultra low cost and environmental friendly electrode material for electrogenerated chemi- luminescence (ECL) was developed by pyrolyzing bamboo sticks. Scope of the work is to prove the use of carbon-based electrodes, in our case one of the less expensive possible, for doing electrochemical analy- sis based on ECL technology. It is also proved the very interesting possibility of producing electrodes by pyrolyzation of organic materials. The pyrolyzation was accomplished in an argon fluxed oven at 850◦C. The resulting pyrolyzed bamboo sticks were tested as electrodes, after their surface were cleaned with an acid attack to achieve a high degree of purity, as confirmed by TGA and XPS analysis. The bamboo electrodes showed higher ECL efficiencies and stability than standard glassy carbon ones, even if they still suffer of poor reproducibility. Typical bamboo tubular structure was found to be a key factor for such a great signal enhancement in electrochemical experiments.