The common indicator solutions include
thymol blue, methyl orange, bromthymol blue, phenolphthalein, and bromphenol blue.
In an effort to understand the extent of impurities in these dyes and the potential impact on the expanded uncertainty of spectrophotometric pH measurements, we have examined seven commercially available sulfonephthalein pH indicators using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS): bromocresol green (BCG), bromocresol purple (BCP), bromothymol blue (BTB), cresol red (CR), meta-cresol purple (MCP), phenol red (PR), and
thymol blue (TB).