Self-Powered Electrochemiluminescence for Imaging the Corrosion of Protective Coating of Metal and Quantitative Analysis

Abstract

In almost all electrochemical systems for electrochemiluminescence (ECL) analysis, electrodes are connected with an external power source, either directly or via wireless energy transfer circuit. That is inconvenient and makes some applications impossible. Herein, we use galvanized iron with two different metals as both power source and electrodes to achieve a self-powered ECL and exploit ECL for the imaging of the corrosion of protective coating of widely used metal (e.g. galvanized iron) for the first time. The self-powered ECL enables the visualization of the deterioration of galvanic coating on iron using a smartphone and the detection of ascorbic acid with a linear range of 0.5–100 μM and a limit of detection of 0.31 μM. The devices based on self-powered approach do not require external power supply, thus effectively reducing their volume and cost. The self-powered ECL holds great promise for metal corrosion imaging and analytical applications.