Patent ID: 7022529

Claim:
A method for determining the presence or amount of an analyte, said method comprising: (a) providing in combination (1) a medium suspected of containing said analyte, and (2) a first specific binding pair (sbp) member capable of binding to said analyte or to a second sbp member to form a complex related to the presence of said analyte, wherein at least one of said sbp members is bound to polymeric particles of about 20 nm to about 100 μm in diameter having homogeneously dispersed therein about 1 to about 20 weight percent of a dopant, which is a plasticizer selected from the group consisting of higher alkylaromatic compounds and higher alkyloxyaromatic compounds and fluorocarbons, a photosensitizer and a chemiluminescent substance, (b) activating said chemiluminescent substance and (c) determining the effect of said activating on the optical properties of said combination, the magnitude of said effect being related to the presence or amount of said analyte in said medium.