A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and may require a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber.
Aniline is an organic compound with the formula C6H5NH2. Consisting of a phenyl group attached to an amino group, aniline is the simplest aromatic amine. It is an industrially significant commodity chemical, as well as a versatile starting material for fine chemical synthesis. Its main use is in the manufacture of precursors to polyurethane, dyes, and other industrial chemicals. Like most volatile amines, it has the odor of rotten fish. It ignites readily, burning with a smoky flame characteristic of aromatic compounds.
Nitrous acid is a weak and monoprotic acid known only in solution, in the gas phase and in the form of nitrite salts. Nitrous acid is used to make diazonium salts from amines. The resulting diazonium salts are reagents in azo coupling reactions to give azo dyes.
Staining is a technique used to enhance contrast in samples, generally at the microscopic level. Stains and dyes are frequently used in histology and in the medical fields of histopathology, hematology, and cytopathology that focus on the study and diagnoses of disease at a microscopic level. Stains may be used to define biological tissues, cell populations, or organelles within individual cells.
Congo red is an organic compound, the sodium salt of 3,3′-([1,1′-biphenyl]-4,4′-diyl)bis(4-aminonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid). It is an azo dye. Congo red is water-soluble, yielding a red colloidal solution; its solubility is greater in organic solvents. However, the use of Congo red has long been abandoned, primarily because of its carcinogenic properties.
Azo compounds are compounds bearing the functional group diazenyl R−N=N−R′, in which R and R′ can be either aryl or alkyl.
The diazogroup is an organic moiety consisting of two linked nitrogen atoms (azo) at the terminal position. Overall charge neutral organic compounds containing the diazo group bound to a carbon atom are called diazo compounds or diazoalkanes and are described by the general structural formula R2C=N+=N–. The simplest example of a diazo compound is diazomethane, CH2N2. Diazo compounds (R2C=N2) should not be confused with azo compounds of the type R-N=N-R or with diazonium compounds of the type R-N2+.
Safranin is a biological stain used in histology and cytology. Safranin is used as a counterstain in some staining protocols, colouring cell nuclei red. This is the classic counterstain in both Gram stains and endospore staining. It can also be used for the detection of cartilage, mucin and mast cell granules.
Acid dyes are anionic, soluble in water and are essentially applied from acidic bath. These dyes possess acidic groups, such as SO3H and COOH and are applied on wool, silk and nylon when ionic bond is established between protonated –NH2 group of fibre and acid group of dye. Overall wash fastness is poor although lightfastness is quite good. As dye and fibre contain opposite electrical nature, strike rate and uptake of acid dye on these fibres is faster; electrolyte at higher concentration is added to retard dye uptake and to form levelled shades. Acid generates cation on fibre and temperature helps to substitute negative part of acid with anionic dye molecules.
Azo dyes are organic compounds bearing the functional group R−N=N−R′, in which R and R′ are usually aryl. They are a commercially important family of azo compounds, i.e. compounds containing the linkage C-N=N-C. Azo dyes are widely used to treat textiles, leather articles, and some foods. Chemically related to azo dyes are azo pigments, which are insoluble in water and other solvents.
Diazonium compounds or diazonium salts are a group of organic compounds sharing a common functional group R−N+2X− where R can be any organic group, such as an alkyl or an aryl, and X is an inorganic or organic anion, such as a halogen.
An azo coupling is an organic reaction between a diazonium compound and another aromatic compound that produces an azo compound. In this electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction, the aryldiazonium cation is the electrophile and the activated arene is a nucleophile. In most cases, including the examples below, the diazonium compound is also aromatic.
Trypan blue is an azo dye. It is a direct dye for cotton textiles. In biosciences, it is used as a vital stain to selectively colour dead tissues or cells blue.
Solvent Black 3 is an azo dye. It is nonfluorescent, relatively thermostable lysochrome diazo dye used for staining of neutral triglycerides and lipids on frozen sections and some lipoproteins on paraffin sections. It has the appearance of a dark brown to black powder with maximum absorption at 596–605 nm and melting point 120–124 °C. It stains blue-black.
Papanicolaou stain is a multichromatic (multicolored) cytological staining technique developed by George Papanicolaou in 1942. The Papanicolaou stain is one of the most widely used stains in cytology, where it is used to aid pathologists in making a diagnosis. Although most notable for its use in the detection of cervical cancer in the Pap test or Pap smear, it is also used to stain non-gynecological specimen preparations from a variety of bodily secretions and from small needle biopsies of organs and tissues. Papanicolaou published three formulations of this stain in 1942, 1954, and 1960.
The formazans are compounds of the general formula [R-N=N-C(R')=N-NH-R"], formally derivatives of formazan [H2NN=CHN=NH], unknown in free form.
Sulfanilic acid (4-aminobenzenesulfonic acid) is an organic compound with the formula H3NC6H4SO3. It is an off-white solid. It is a zwitterion, which explains its high melting point. It is a common building block in organic chemistry.
Benzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate is an organic compound with the formula [C6H5N2]BF4. It is a salt of a diazonium cation and tetrafluoroborate. It exists as a colourless solid that is soluble in polar solvents. It is the parent member of the aryldiazonium compounds, which are widely used in organic chemistry.
Azo violet (4-(4-nitrophenylazo)resorcinol) (or p-nitrobenzeneazoresorcinol) is an azo compound with the chemical formula C12H9N3O4. It is used commercially as a violet dye and experimentally as a pH indicator, appearing yellow below pH 11, and violet above pH 13. It also turns deep blue in the presence of magnesium salt in a slightly alkaline, or basic, environment. Azo violet may also be used to test for the presence of ammonium ions. The color of ammonium chloride or ammonium hydroxide solution will vary depending upon the concentration of azo violet used.
N-(1-Naphthyl)ethylenediamine is an organic compound. It is commercially available as part of Griess reagents, which find application in quantitative inorganic analysis of nitrates, nitrite and sulfonamide in blood, using the Griess test.
