Ferrocene-based derivatization in analytical chemistry

Ferrocene-based derivatization has raised considerable interest in many fields of analytical chemistry. This is due to the well-established chemistry of ferrocenes, which allows rapid and easy access to a large number of reagents and derivatives. Furthermore, the electrochemical properties of ferrocenes are attractive with respect to their detection. This paper summarizes the available reagents, the reaction conditions and the different approaches for detection. While electrochemical detection is still most widely used to detect ferrocene derivatives, e.g., in the field of DNA analysis, the emerging combination of analytical separation methods with electrochemistry, mass spectrometry and atomic spectroscopy allows ferrocenes to be applied more universally and in novel applications where strongly improved selectivity and limits of detection are required.