Abstract: “Hot electrons can be injected into aqueous electrolyte solution from tunnel emission electrodes which are composed of a conductor coated with a thin insulating film. Conductors can be e.g. metals, or strongly doped semiconductors [1, 2]. Insulating film should be fabricated from an insulator material with a band gap of ca. 5 eV or preferably higher, and the Fermi level of the insulator should be somewhere in the mid band gap region. The hot electrons are emitted to aqueous electrolyte solution by direct field-assisted tunneling [2, 3]. After injection into the conduction band of water the hot electrons are thermalized and solvated to form hydrated electrons which finally act as reducing mediators in the Hot Electron-induced Electrochemiluminescence (HECL) systems. HECL is utilized mainly in immunoanalysis and in DNA-probe assays in which electrochemiluminescent labels are utilized [ 3 -5crp, 2, tsh]. Best labels are aromatic lanthanide chelates which allow time-resolved HECL detection”

Keywords: Applications, Film-Coated Electrodes, Electron Injection, Solutions