1,10-Phenanthroline and its derivatives, classic bidentate N-donor ligands, can form stable complexes with a variety of transition metals and have been widely used as catalysts in various organic reactions. Ferritic elements(iron, cobalt, nickel) have the advantages of high natural abundance, low cost, low toxicity and unique catalytic performance. The complexes of 1,10-phenanthroline type ligands and ferritic elements are ideal alternative catalysts. In recent years, 1,10-phenanthroline type ligands have been widely used in Fe/Co/Ni-catalyzed organic reactions,especially in cross-coupling reactions, addition reactions,and redox reactions,showing unique ligand effects. More and more studies revealed that the rigid aromatic structure of 1,10-phenanthroline plays an important role in improving the stability of the catalyst, and the substituents of 1,10-phenanthroline have a significant impact on the activity and selectivity of corresponding catalyst. More interestingly, a few recent studies disclosed that 1,10-phenanthroline ligands might change the spin state and three-dimensional electronic structure of the Fe/Co/Ni catalysts, which accounts for their unique reactivity as well as selectivity.Although with the above-mentioned progresses, there are still several important challenges in this field, including the poor structural diversity of 1,10-phenanthroline type ligands and poor understanding of the electron effect of 1,10-phenanthroline ligands to corresponding metal catalysts.In this review, we summarized the applications of 1,10-phenanthroline ligands in Fe/Co/Ni-catalyzed organic reactions, and gave an outlook of this promising field.