It serves as a chelating ligand for transition metals (especially Fe in the red ferroin complex used as a redox indicator) in analytical chemistry for spectrophotometric metal determination protein structure studies via metalloproteinase inhibition and polymer synthesis.

Its primary purpose is metal chelation due to the rigid bidentate N-donor sites forming stable octahedral complexes enabling sensitive colorimetric detection of iron(II) at 510 nm and inhibition of zinc enzymes.

110-Phenanthroline also known as o-phenanthroline is a heterocyclic organic compound featuring a tricyclic structure with two nitrogen atoms at the 1 and 10 positions forming a planar molecule with a large conjugated system molecular weight 180.20 gmol melting point 117119C and high solubility in organic solvents.