Insight into the unique analytical capabilities of the redox cycling of quinones: A comprehensive review

Quinones are redox-active compounds with many beneficial biological functions and harmful effects. Owing to their high redox activity, quinones can be repetitively oxidized and reduced, producing reactive oxygen species, a process known as the quinone redox cycling. In the last two decades, the redox cycling of quinones has enabled several interesting analytical applications. These applications either use quinones as analytes or as probes for non-quinone analytes. In both cases, the redox cycling of quinone is compatible with various detection techniques, including colorimetry, chemiluminescence, fluorimetry, and electroanalytical methods. Despite the versatile and interesting applications of quinone redox cycling, no review has discussed their analytical capabilities. Therefore, we review the analytical applications of quinone redox cycling in this article, covering all detection strategies that have been applied where quinones were used as analytes or probes. In addition, attention was given to the analytical challenges and future prospects of quinone redox cycling.