Request for: adding chemiluminescent as a unit

[edailizs]

Dear UCUM Standards Committee,

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to propose the inclusion of a new unit of measurement in the UCUM standard to represent chemiluminescent emission or intensity.

Chemiluminescence refers to the production of light as a result of a chemical reaction, which is widely used in various scientific fields, particularly in biochemistry, molecular biology, and analytical chemistry. However, there currently seems to be no standard unit within UCUM for quantifying chemiluminescent output, and as this method continues to grow in both academic research and commercial applications, a standardized unit of measurement would be invaluable for consistent reporting and data sharing across these domains.

The addition of a specific unit for chemiluminescence would not only benefit researchers but also streamline processes in industries such as diagnostics, biotechnology, and environmental monitoring.

We kindly request that the UCUM committee consider adding this unit to the system, in order to better accommodate the evolving needs of the scientific community. If additional details or clarifications are required regarding the nature or application of this measurement, I would be happy to provide further information.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to the continued enhancement of UCUM standards to support advancements in scientific measurement.

Sincerely,

[chgessner]

Hello,
thanks for the question.

After a quick investigation of the topic I found a text that explains some of the challenges when trying to quantify and compare chemoluminescence measurements:
https://www.berthold.com/en/bioanalytic/knowledge/glossary/rlu/

The gist of this is that in all practical applications chemoluminescence is not measured as an absolute value, but as a ratio relative to some known constant reference material. Such a relative measurement yields a dimensionless quantity, i. e. a numerical value without any unit.

While during the measurement process instrument readings might be annotated "RLU" (or rather RLU/s), such intermediate values are highly dependent on the specific process and generally can not be compared across setups.

UCUM provides the facility of "annotations" that could be used to characterize such internal intermediate measurements. As said before, the end result typically is a dimensionless quantity, therefore no new unit is required here.