Murexide (NH₄C₈H₄N₅O₆, or C₈H₅N₅O₆·NH₃), also called ammonium purpurate or MX, is the

ammonium The ammonium cation is a positively-charged polyatomic ion with the chemical formula or . It is formed by the protonation of ammonia (). Ammonium is also a general name for positively charged or protonated substituted amines and quaternary a ...

salt of

purpuric acid Purpuric acid is a nitrogenous acid related to barbituric acid that yields alloxan and uramil upon hydrolysis. It is noteworthy for its purple-red salts, such as its ammonium salt murexide. Purpuric acid was first described in 1818 by the Engli ...

. It is a purple solid that is soluble in water. The compound was once used as an indicator reagent. Aqueous solutions are yellow at low pH, reddish-purple in weakly acidic solutions, and blue-purple in alkaline solutions.

Preparation

Murexide is prepared by treating alloxantin with ammonia to 100 °C, or by treating uramil (5-aminobarbituric acid) with

mercury oxide Mercury oxide can refer to: * Mercury(I) oxide (mercurous oxide), Hg2O * Mercury(II) oxide Mercury(II) oxide, also called mercuric oxide or simply mercury oxide, is the inorganic compound with the formula Hg O. It has a red or orange color. Mer ...

. It may also be prepared by digesting alloxan with alcoholic ammonia.

History

Justus von Liebig Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 20 April 1873) was a German scientist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at t ...

and

Friedrich Wöhler Friedrich Wöhler () FRS(For) HonFRSE (31 July 180023 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements beryllium and yttrium in pure metallic form. He was the firs ...

in Giessen, Germany, had investigated the purple product, murexide, obtained from snake excrement in the 1830s, but this was not an abundant raw material, and a method of using it as a dyestuff was not established at that time. In the 1850s, French colourists and dye-producers, such as Depoully in Paris, succeeded in making murexide from abundant South American guano and of applying it to natural fibres. It was then widely adopted in Britain, France and Germany.

Use

Murexide is used in analytical chemistry as a complexometric indicator for complexometric titrations, most often of calcium ions, but also for copper, nickel, cobalt, thorium and rare-earth metals. It functions as a tridentate ligand. Its use has been eclipsed by calcium- ion selective electrodes.

References

{{Ammonium salts Ammonium compounds Complexometric indicators Dyes Pyrimidines Lactams Enones