Ultra-sensitive solid substrate-room temperature phosphorimetry for colchicine detection based on its catalytic effect on H2O2 oxidation of acridine yellow

A new solid substrate-room temperature phosphorimetry (SS-RTP) method for colchicine (COL) detection has been established based on its strong catalytic effect on H2O2 oxidation of acridine yellow (AY), which sharply quenched the room temperature phosphorimetry (RTP) of AY. This highly sensitive (the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 3.1 × 10−13 g mL−1), accurate and selective SS-RTP has been successfully applied for COL detection in human serum and tea samples with the results efficiently agreeing with the results for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); the results were also in agreement with those obtained by ultrafast liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UFLC-MS/MS). The activation energy and the reaction rate constant of catalytic reaction were 40.53 kJ mol−1 and 3.97 × 10−4 s−1, respectively. In addition, the reaction mechanism of catalytic SS-RTP for COL detection was also discussed using infrared spectra (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electron impact mass spectra (EIMS).