Xylenol orange is an organic

reagent In chemistry, a reagent ( ) or analytical reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or test if one occurs. The terms ''reactant'' and ''reagent'' are often used interchangeably, but reactant specifies a ...

, most commonly used as a tetrasodium salt as an indicator for metal titrations. When used for metal titrations, it will appear red in the titrand and become yellow once it reaches its endpoint. Historically, commercial preparations of it have been notoriously impure, sometimes consisting of as little as 20% xylenol orange, and containing large amounts of semi-xylenol orange and

iminodiacetic acid Iminodiacetic acid is the organic compound with the formula HN(CH2CO2H)2, often abbreviated to IDA. A white solid, the compound is a dicarboxylic acid amine (the nitrogen atom forms a secondary amino group, not an imino group as the name suggests ...

. Purities as high as 90% are now available. It is fluorescent, and has excitation maximums of 440 & 570 nm and an emission maximum of 610 nm.

References

Analytical reagents Triarylmethane dyes Benzoxathioles Acetic acids {{Organic-compound-stub