Lucigenin is one of the most often used chemiluminescent reagents and might be used for e.g., the indication of the presence of superoxide anion radicals.
Lucigenin is rather expensive to buy, however, its synthesis only includes a two stage synthesis starting from acridanone. The first stage includes an Nmethylation, the second forms the lucigenin chloride, which is finally transformed into lucigenin nitrate. To check the purity of the synthesized lucigenin, ion measurement can be applied using a nitrate selective electrode. This is a fast and inexpensive method compared to competing methods such as ion chromatography.
