Rhodamine 6G is a highly

fluorescent Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...

rhodamine Rhodamine is a family of related dyes, a subset of the triarylmethane dyes. They are derivatives of xanthene. Important members of the rhodamine family are Rhodamine 6G, Rhodamine 123, and Rhodamine B. They are mainly used to dye paper and inks ...

family dye. It is often used as a

tracer dye Dye tracing is a method of tracking and tracing various Fluid dynamics, flows using dye as a flow tracer when added to a liquid. Dye tracing may be used to analyse the flow of the liquid or the transport of objects within the liquid. Dye tracking m ...

within water to determine the rate and direction of flow and transport. Rhodamine dyes

fluoresce Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...

and can thus be detected easily and inexpensively with instruments called

fluorometer A fluorometer, fluorimeter or fluormeter is a device used to measure parameters of visible spectrum fluorescence: its intensity and wavelength distribution of emission spectrum after excitation by a certain spectrum of light. These parameters ar ...

s. Rhodamine dyes are used extensively in biotechnology applications such as

fluorescence microscopy A fluorescence microscope is an optical microscope that uses fluorescence instead of, or in addition to, scattering, reflection, and attenuation or absorption, to study the properties of organic or inorganic substances. "Fluorescence microscop ...

flow cytometry Flow cytometry (FC) is a technique used to detect and measure 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 flo ...

fluorescence correlation spectroscopy Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is a statistical analysis, via time correlation, of stationary fluctuations of the fluorescence intensity. Its theoretical underpinning originated from L. Onsager's regression hypothesis. The analysis p ...

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 uses a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence ...

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 Butanol (also called butyl alcohol) is a four-carbon alcohol with a formula of C4 H9 O H, which occurs in five isomeric structures (four structural isomers), from a straight-chain primary alcohol to a branched-chain tertiary alcohol; all are a b ...

(40 g/L),

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

(80 g/L),

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is a ...

(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 sp ...

(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. As an isopropyl group linked to a hydroxyl group (chemical formula ) it is the simple ...

(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 Laser dyes are dyes used as laser medium in a dye laser. Laser dyes include the coumarins and the rhodamines. Coumarin dyes emit in the green region of the spectrum, whereas rhodamine dyes are used for emission in the yellow-red. The color emi ...

, or

gain medium The active laser medium (also called gain medium or lasing medium) is the source of optical gain within a laser. The gain results from the stimulated emission of photons through electronic or molecular transitions to a lower energy state from a ...

, in

dye laser A dye laser is a laser that uses an organic dye as the lasing medium, usually as a liquid solution. Compared to gases and most solid state lasing media, a dye can usually be used for a much wider range of wavelengths, often spanning 50 to 100 ...

s, and is pumped by the second (532 nm) harmonic from an Nd:YAG laser,

nitrogen laser A nitrogen laser is a gas laser operating in the ultraviolet rangeC. S. Willett, ''Introduction to Gas Lasers: Population Inversion Mechanisms'' (Pergamon, New York,1974). (typically 337.1 nm) using molecular nitrogen as its gain medium, pum ...

, or argon ion laser. The dye has a remarkably high

photostability Photochemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the chemical effects of light. Generally, this term is used to describe a chemical reaction caused by absorption of ultraviolet (wavelength from 100 to 400 nm), visible light (400–7 ...

, high fluorescence

quantum yield The quantum yield (Φ) of a radiation-induced process is the number of times a specific event occurs per photon absorbed by the system. Applications Fluorescence spectroscopy The fluorescence quantum yield is defined as the ratio of the numb ...

(0.95R. F. Kubin and A. N. Fletcher, "Fluorescence quantum yields of some rhodamine dyes.
J. Luminescence 27 (1982) 455
/ref>), 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.

References

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