Chemiluminescence sensing for Hg2+ in environment water using carbon materials from PVC dechlorination as signal initiator

Chemiluminescence (CL) sensing with good performance remains a challenge. The utilization of secondary residues from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) treatment is the key to improve PVC recycling rate. Herein, dechlorinated carbon materials from PVC/iron scrap co-treatment in subcritical water were used as CL sensing element. It was found that tiny changes in the spatial structure of aptamer could cause huge changes in CL signal of the residue–luminol system. A CL biosensor was constructed for mercury in environment water for the first time. The detection limit was estimated to be 0.37 pM. High sensitivity was mainly due to strong CL triggering and signal amplification from residues and effective regulating residue activity by aptamer space dimension. For real water samples, the results by residue CL analysis were consistent with that by cold vapor atom adsorption spectroscopy (CVAAS). Most strikingly, the used material was secondary residues from the treatment of PVC waste, which reduced the time and energy consumption of CL sensing. This research proposed the approach for routine monitoring mercury in environment but also provided the reference for developing other environmentally beneficial analysis platforms.