Abstract
The structures of colorless, red, and yellow-orange fluorescein have been investigated by a combination of solution and solid state13C NMR. It is demonstrated that the three forms have lactonic, zwitterionic, and quinoid structures, respectively. Conflicting X-ray, NMR, and IR structural evidence is discussed for samples of red fluorescein which cannot readily be obtained in definite crystalline form. It is concluded that solid-state13C NMR spectroscopy is superior by revealing primarily the molecular structure but being fairly insensitive toward lattice variations.
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The Editors regret the long delay in having this paper printed due to an unfortunate administrative error.
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Anthoni, U., Christophersen, C., Nielsen, P.H. et al. Structure of red and orange fluorescein. Struct Chem 6, 161–165 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02286443
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02286443