A New method of determining the extent of binding of an ionic dye to a polyelectrolyte in solution

A method of determining the free dye concentration in a dye/polyelectrolyte solution is described. The method utilizes the tendency of cationic dyes to adsorb to a cellulose dialysis membrane, and the nature of the membrane binding is studied by spectrophotometric methods. The binding of the cationic dye toluidine blue to the polyanion sodium carboxymethylcellulose in solution is used as an example. The proposed technique gives reliable estimates of free dye concentration over a wide range of polyanion and dye concentrations, both in the presence and absence of added simple electrolyte. The method possesses inherent advantages over estimates of free dye concentration obtained by absorption spectrophotometry and is more versatile than fluorimetry.