8-Hydroxyquinoline

8-Hydroxyquinoline (also known as oxine) is an organic compound derived from the heterocycle quinoline. A colorless solid, its conjugate base is a chelating agent, which is used for the quantitative determination of metal ions.

In aqueous solution 8-hydroxyquinoline has a pK_a value of ca. 9.9 It reacts with metal ions, losing the proton and forming 8-hydroxyquinolinato-chelate complexes.

The aluminium complex, is a common component of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Substituents on the quinoline ring affect the luminescence properties.

In its photo-induced excited-state, 8-hydroxyquinoline converts to zwitterionic isomers, in which the hydrogen atom is transferred from oxygen to nitrogen.

8-hydroxyquinoline was first obtained by Hugo Weidel and his student Albert Cobenzl in 1880. They decarboxylated so-called oxycinchoninic acid (from cinchonine) and characterized the resulting compound as melting at about 70°C. They identified that the hydroxy group is on the benzene ring (but not its particular place) and called the compound oxyquinoline and α-quinophenol.

In the following year more chemists found other ways to make the compound. Zdenko Hans Skraup discovered a way to synthesize substituted quinolines from substituted phenols and described three isomers of oxyquinoline, identifying the structure of 8-hydroxyquinoline. Otto Fischer [de] and his student Karl Bedall made the compound from a sulphonic acid independently at about the same time, but misidentified its structure.

By 1888 azo dyes were made from the compound.

In the 1920s insoluble chelates of 8-hydroxyquinoline were discovered.