Rhodamine 6G is a highly

fluorescent Fluorescence is one of two kinds of photoluminescence, the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, many substances will glow (fluoresce) with color ...

rhodamine family

dye Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...

. It is often used as a tracer dye within water to determine the rate and direction of flow and transport. Rhodamine dyes

fluoresce Fluorescence is one of two kinds of photoluminescence, the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, many substances will glow (fluoresce) with color ...

and can thus be detected easily and inexpensively with instruments called fluorometers. Rhodamine dyes are used extensively in biotechnology applications such as fluorescence microscopy,

flow cytometry Flow cytometry (FC) is a technique used to detect and measure the physical and chemical characteristics of a population of cells or particles. In this process, a sample containing cells or particles is suspended in a fluid and injected into the ...

, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and

ELISA The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay is a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence of ...

Forms

Rhodamine 6G usually comes in three different forms. Rhodamine 6G chloride is a bronze/red powder with the chemical formula C₂₈H₃₁ClN₂O₃. Although highly soluble, this formulation is very corrosive to all metals except stainless steel. Other formulations are less soluble, but also less corrosive. Rhodamine 6G perchlorate (C₂₈H₃₁ClN₂O₇) comes in the form of red crystals, while rhodamine 6G tetrafluoroborate (C₂₈H₃₁BF₄N₂O₃) appears as maroon crystals.

Solubility

Butanol (40 g/L),

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

(80 g/L),

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with the chemical formula (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often ab ...

(400 g/L),

propanol There are two isomers of propanol. * 1-Propanol, ''n''-propanol, or propan-1-ol: CH3CH2CH2OH, the most common meaning *2-Propanol, isopropyl alcohol, isopropanol, or propan-2-ol: (CH3)2CHOH See also * Propanal (propionaldehyde) differs in spel ...

(15 g/L), MEG (50 g/L), DEG ( 100 g/L), TEG (100 g/L),

isopropanol Isopropyl alcohol (IUPAC name propan-2-ol and also called isopropanol or 2-propanol) is a colorless, flammable, organic compound with a pungent alcoholic odor. Isopropyl alcohol, an organic polar molecule, is miscible in water, ethanol, an ...

(15 g/L), ethoxyethanol (25 g/L), methoxyethanol (50 g/L), dipropylene glycol (30 g/L), PEG (20 g/L).

Laser dye

Rhodamine 6G is also used as a

laser dye file:Coherent 899 dye laser.jpg, Close-up of a table-top dye laser using Rhodamine 6G as active medium. file:rhodamine 6G.svg, Molecular structure of Rhodamine 6G, perhaps the best known laser dye. A Laser dye is a dye used as laser medium in a dy ...

, or gain medium, in dye lasers, and is pumped by the second (532 nm) harmonic from an Nd:YAG laser, nitrogen laser, or argon ion laser. The dye has a remarkably high photostability, high fluorescence

quantum yield In particle physics, the quantum yield (denoted ) of a radiation-induced process is the number of times a specific event occurs per photon absorbed by the system. \Phi(\lambda)=\frac Applications Fluorescence spectroscopy The fluorescence ...

(0.95), low cost, and its lasing range has close proximity to its absorption maximum (approximately 530 nm). The lasing range of the dye is 570 to 660 nm with a maximum at 590 nm.

Properties

The refractive index of Rhodamine 6G has been determined in recent studies. According to research published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces and the Refractive Index Database, the refractive index is 1.87 (k=0.79) for 532 nm wavelength.

References

{{reflist * Staining dyes Laser gain media Xanthenes Benzoate esters