Fluorescent materials xanthenes

Since their commercial introduction during the 1940s as components of proprietary detergents and laundry preparations, these products have found extensive usage in the whitening of paper and textile materials. Disperse FBAs are available for whitening hydrophobic fibres and solvent-soluble FBAs impart fluorescence to oils, paints, varnishes and waxes. Approximately 75% of commercially established FBAs are stilbene derivatives with inherent substantivity for paper and cellulosic textiles, but the remainder come from about twenty different chemical classes. These include aminocoumarins (6%), naphthalimides (3%), pyrazoles and pyrazolines (each about 2%), acenaphthenes, benzidine sulphones, stilbene-naphthotriazoles, thiazoles and xanthenes (each about 1%). FBAs of these and other chemical types are discussed in detail in Chapter 11 of Volume 2. 

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