CHEMILUMINESCENCE INVOLVING PEROXIDE DECOMPOSITIONS

Abstract

Abstract— It is a reasonable assumption that many of the known cherniluminescent organic compounds react to give a carbonyl group in an excited state. By extension of this hypothesis we were led to test several substituted acridinium salts. Oxidation of these with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of base resulted in the formation of N‐methylacridone in high yield, and the emission of light from an excited state of this ketone. Mechanisms for this process are discussed. Interest in indole derivatives aroused by the finding of a tryptamine residue in the luminescent cypridina luciferin, in conjunction with the hypothesis mentioned above, has led to an investigation of some indoles, and in particular, the important isolable peroxide of tetrahydrocarbazole. A preliminary account of this work is given.