Lucifer yellow
Encyclopedia
Lucifer yellow is a fluorescent dye used in cell biology
Cell biology
Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...

. The key property of Lucifer yellow is that it can readily visualized in both living and fixed cells using a fluorescence microscope
Fluorescence microscope
A fluorescence microscope is an optical microscope used to study properties of organic or inorganic substances using the phenomena of fluorescence and phosphorescence instead of, or in addition to, reflection and absorption...

. Lucifer yellow was engineered by Walter W. Stewart at NIH and patented in 1978.

Preparations

For common usage it is compounded with carbohydrazide
Carbohydrazide
Carbohydrazide is used as an oxygen scavenger in water treatment for boilers. It is an alternative to the hazardous and potentially carcinogenic hydrazine. Carbohydrazide reacts with oxygen to make water and nitrogen and urea...

 (CH) and prepared as a Lithium
Lithium
Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...

 salt. The CH group allows it to be covalently linked to surrounding biomolecules during aldehyde
Aldehyde
An aldehyde is an organic compound containing a formyl group. This functional group, with the structure R-CHO, consists of a carbonyl center bonded to hydrogen and an R group....

 fixation.

Other cations such as ammonium
Ammonium
The ammonium cation is a positively charged polyatomic cation with the chemical formula NH. It is formed by the protonation of ammonia...

 or potassium
Potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the hydrogen emitted in the reaction.Potassium and sodium are...

 can be used when lithium is undesirable, but the resulting salts are less soluble in water.

Lucifer yellow can also be compounded as a vinyl
Vinyl
A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group ,which are derivatives of ethene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom replaced with some other group...

 sulfone
Sulfone
A sulfone is a chemical compound containing a sulfonyl functional group attached to two carbon atoms. The central hexavalent sulfur atom is double bonded to each of two oxygen atoms and has a single bond to each of two carbon atoms, usually in two separate hydrocarbon substituents.-IUPAC name and...

, with ethylenediamine, or with cadaverine
Cadaverine
Cadaverine is a foul-smelling compound produced by protein hydrolysis during putrefaction of animal tissue. Cadaverine is a toxic diamine with the formula NH25NH2, which is similar to putrescine...

.
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