a water - soluble luminescent compound having repeating units of the formula : ## str1 ## the product , which is a polymer having repeating units comprising diazo - linked luminol and hydroxyindole , is referred to as diazoluminomelanin , since one of the precursors to this product , 3 - amino - l - tyrosine is closely related to the biological substrates which are converted into melanin . also provided is a method for preparing dalm which comprises reacting 3at with an alkali metal nitrite , and reacting the resulting diazonium salt with luminol . dalm can be used for chemiluminescent immunoassays for biological and chemical agents ; in radiofrequency and ionizing radiation dosimeters ; and for rna / dna hybridization assays for viruses and genetic detection .