Prussian Blue: History, Miscellaneous Uses and Analytical Applications-A Review

Since the accidental discovery of Prussian Blue in 1706, the blue chemical has been extensively employed in a number of commercial applications. It has been used as a color for paintings, dye for textile, antidote for heavy metal toxicity, staining agent in histopathology, and by machinists and toolmakers for spotting metal surfaces. In addition, due to its unique electrochemical properties, Prussian Blue has been vastly studied as storage of electric energy and used as a battery material. The electroanalytical applications of Prussian Blue and its different analogs have also been thoroughly investigated and used as sensors and biosensor for last few decades. Very recently the investigations have been made on the use of nanoparticles of Prussian Blue in biomedicine. The deep blue color and easy formation of Prussian Blue as a result of redox properties of iron ions, made it an excellent coloring reagent, which shows absorption around 700nm, for the spectrophotometric determination of a large variety of materials like phenols, sugars, drugs, ascorbic acid, antibiotics, adrenaline, hydroxy urea, dopamine, and penems in a vast range of substances such as soil, fruit, vegetables, pharmaceutical preparations and tobacco. Similarly, on the basis of Prussian Blue, a number of sensors and biosensor schemes have been developed for the detection and determination of a number of substances. Prussian Blue has a fascinating and interesting history along with its miscellaneous uses since the start of 18th century. In this review an attempt has been made to cover the history, miscellaneous uses and analytical applications of Prussian Blue employed as spectrophotometric reagent and a biosensor.