The catalytic activation of copper unsaturated complex with amino acids and some other organic ligands upon the luminol-hydrogen peroxide and o-phenanthroline-hydrogen peroxide chemiluminescence systems have been studied in detail. A new chemiluminescence method for determination of amino acids with a copper hydroxide column and flow injection systems were established based on the complexmetric dissolution of copper hydroxide to form amino acid-copper unsaturated complex, which catalyze the chemiluminescence reaction between luminol and hydrogen peroxide. A compare with the method based on complex suppression of chemiluminescence from the Cu^2^+ luminol-H2O2 system, the method is more high sensitivity and wider linear range. The detect limits for all amino acids are pmol level. The method has been applied to the determination of lysine in some food and phenylalanine in sernm with satisfactory results.

Key words: AMINO ACID, HIGH SPEED LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY, COPPER COMPLEX, HYDROGEN PEROXIDE, LUMINOL, PHENANTHROLINE, FLOW INJECTION ANALYSIS, CHEMILUMINESSENCE