Luminescence Amplification at BiVO4 Photoanodes by Photoinduced Electrochemiluminescence

Abstract Photoinduced electrochemiluminescence (PECL) combines semiconductor (SC) photoelectrochemistry with electrochemiluminescence (ECL). In PECL, the incident light is converted into a different wavelength by an electrochemical reaction at a SC photoelectrode and allows triggering of ECL at low potentials. This concept has been employed to design up‐conversion systems. However, PECL strongly suffers from the photoelectrochemical instability of these low band gap SCs. Reported here for the first time is an original light‐conversion strategy based on PECL of a luminol derivative (L‐012) at BiVO 4 photoanodes in water. Incident light photoexcites simultaneously the L‐012 fluorescence and the photoanode. However, the resulting signal is surpassed by the PECL emission. PECL can be induced at a potential as low as −0.4 V for several hours and can be employed to finely tune L‐012 luminescence. This finding is promising for the design of new analytical strategies and light‐addressable systems.