Formation and microscopical application of a fluorescent 1,10-phenanthroline derivative of ruthenium red.

In this work we describe the formation and microscopical application of a fluorescent derivative of Ruthenium Red (RR) obtained by heating the dye in the presence of 1,10-phenanthroline (OP). The RR-OP reaction product showed absorption maxima at 416 and 444 nm and intense fluorescence emission at 578 nm under 440 nm exciting light. Neither RR nor OP solutions alone were fluorescent when excited at 440 nm. Using fluorescence microscopy, chicken blood cell smears stained 5 min with the RR-OP derivative showed the chromatin of erythrocyte nuclei with a bright orange fluorescence under violet-blue (436 nm) exciting light.