The "functional" component could have a variety of readouts, such as fluorescence, the binding of a substrate, or catalytic activity.
The key feature of such redox switches is that the functional component is influenced by the control subunit.
One of many examples of a redox switch consists of an anthracene substituent to a copper-thiacrown ether (14-ane-4) coordination complex.
[1] Several redox switches have been produced from ferrocenecarboxylic acid, which can be conjugated to a number of functional components.
1,1'-Diaminoferrocene has been incorporated into various diamide and diimine ligands, which form catalysts that exhibit redox switching.