• Clean Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.102-107
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• 2015

Rhodamine dyes are widely used as fluorescent probes because of their excellent photophysical properties, such as high extinction coefficients, excellent quantum yields, great photostability, relatively long emission wavelengths. A great synthetic effort has been focused on developing efficient and practical procedures to prepare rhodamine derivatives, because for most applications the probe must be covalently linked to another (bio)molecule or surface. Sulforhodamine B is one of the most used rhodamine dyes for this purpose, because it carries two sulfoxy functions which can be easily utilized for binding with other molecules. Recently, we needed an expedient, practical synthesis of sulforhodamine derivatives. We found the existing procedure for obtaining those compounds unsatisfactory, particularly, with the cyclization process of the dihydroxytriarylmethane (1) to produce the corresponding xanthene derivative (2). We report here our findings, which represent modification of the existing literature procedure and provide access to the corresponding xanthene derivative (2) in a high yield. Use of methanol as a co-solvent was found quite effective to prohibit the water molecule produced during the cyclization reaction from retro-cyclizing back to the starting dihydroxytriarylmethane and the yield of the cyclization was increased (up to 84% from less than 20%). The reaction temperature was significantly lowered (80 vs. 135 ℃). Thus, the reaction proceeds in a higher yield and energy-saving manner where the use of reactants and the production of chemical wastes is minimized.