Luminescence

Luminescence, emission of light, usually defined as restricted to cold body emission, not caused by heath (that is rather called incandescence), upon occurring of a chemical or physical phenomenon. This term was first used by Q. L. Bum in 1888 [1], when studying systematically the emission(s) of (mainly organic) materials, and defined as follows "I would like to propose for this second type of exploiting light, for which we have not yet a name, propose the name of luminescence, and to tag the bodies that give light in such a way luminescent. Various types of luminescence are distinguished according to the mechanism involved [2-4], viz.

1. Chemical Excitation

• Chemoluminescence - luminescence caused by the occurring of a chemical reaction [5-8],
• Bioluminescence - luminescence caused by the occurring of a biochemical reaction in the cells [8],
• Electrochemicalluminescence - luminescence caused by the occurring of an electrochemical reaction [9-10].