8-Hydroxyquinoline

8-Hydroxyquinoline has a wide variety of uses.

Primarily because of their metal chelating properties, 8-hydroxyquinoline and its salts, halogenated derivatives, and metal complexes have been used as analytical reagents and as antimicrobial agents in medicine, fungicides, and insecticides. It is also used as a preservative in cosmetics and tobacco, a chemical intermediate in dye synthesis, and a precipitating reagent for uranium and other radioactive metals in nuclear power plant liquid waste effluent. It is used in nuclear medicine with indium-111.

8-Hydroxyquinoline may be used as a chelating ligand in the preparation of tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum, an organic electroluminescent compound used in organic light-emitting devices.