indicators and reagents definition

Substances used for the detection, identification, analysis, etc. Of chemical, biological, or pathologic processes or conditions. Indicators are substances that change in physical appearance, e.g., colour, at or approaching the endpoint of a chemical titration, e.g., on the passage between acidity and alkalinity. Reagents are substances used for the detection or determination of another substance by chemical or microscopical means, especially analysis. Types of reagents are precipitants, solvents, oxidisers, reducers, fluxes, and colourimetric reagents.

(12 Dec 1998)