Applications of metal complexes in analytical chemistry: A review article

Abstract

Metal complexes are commonly utilized substances in the field of analytical chemistry. They can be synthesized to possess specific molecular geometries, thereby enabling the exploitation of their distinct electrochemical, physical, and spectroscopic properties for analytical purposes. Most metal-complexes have strong chromophore, rigid luminescent structure and electrochemical activity. These properties can be exploited to enable measurement of analytes that lack the essential chromophoric, fluorophoric, or oxidizable/reducible groups. These properties of metal complexes have spurred the development of analytical methods based on these complexes for the determination of various analytes, including drugs, metals, nucleic acids, as well as large and small molecules, across different analytical applications. This review encompasses the substantial progress made in the development of metal complex-based analytical methods for the determination of different analytes in various samples. These methods rely on the interaction between the analyte and metal complexes through diverse mechanisms, followed by determination using UV/VIS spectroscopy, spectrofluorometry, electrochemistry, chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis. These metal complex-based methods offer advantages such as sensitivity, selectivity, simplicity, speed, and affordability.