Development of synthetic dyes

Triphenylmethane dyes

Perkin’s accidental discovery of mauve as a product of dichromate oxidation of impure aniline motivated chemists to examine oxidations of aniline with an array of reagents. Sometime between 1858 and 1859, French chemist François-Emmanuel Verguin found that reaction of aniline with stannic chloride gave a fuchsia, or rose-coloured, dye, which he named fuchsine. It was the first of the triphenylmethane dyes and triggered the second phase of the synthetic dye industry. Other reagents were found to give better yields, leading to vigorous patent activity and several legal disputes. Inadvertent addition of excess aniline in a fuchsine preparation resulted in the discovery of aniline blue, a promising new dye, although it had poor water solubility. From the molecular formulas of these dyes, Hofmann showed that aniline blue was fuchsine with three more phenyl groups (―C₆H₅), but the chemical structures were still unknown. In a careful study, the British chemist Edward Chambers Nicholson showed that pure aniline produced no dye, a fact also discovered at a Ciba plant in Basel, Switzerland, that was forced to close because the aniline imported from France no longer gave satisfactory yields. Hofmann showed that toluidine (CH₃C₆H₄NH₂) must be present to produce these dyes. All these dyes, including mauve, were prepared from aniline containing unknown amounts of toluidine.

Furthermore, all the dyes were found to be mixtures of two major components. The triphenylmethane structures were established in 1878 by German chemist Emil Fischer, who showed that the methyl carbon of p-toluidine becomes the central carbon bonded to three aryl groups. Fuchsine was found to be a mixture of pararosaniline, C.I. Basic Red 9, and a homolog having a methyl group (―CH₃) ortho to one of the amino groups (―NH₂); its classical name is magenta (C.I. Basic Violet 14). Each nitrogen in aniline blue bears a phenyl group and each in crystal violet is dimethylated. Malachite green differs from crystal violet by having one unsubstituted aryl ring. It is not surprising that some of these early synthetic dyes had several different names. For example, malachite green was also known as aniline green, China green, and benzaldehyde green; it is C.I. Basic Green 4 (C.I. 42000) and has more than a dozen other trade names.

Nicholson had independently discovered aniline blue and found that treatment with sulfuric acid greatly increases its water solubility. This process, in which a sulfonic acid group (―SO₃H) is added onto an aryl ring, was found to be applicable to many dyes and became a standard method for enhancing water solubility. Most of the few hundred triarylmethane dyes listed in the Colour Index were synthesized before 1900. In some, one phenyl ring is replaced with a naphthyl group, whose substituents include NH₂, OH, SO₃Na, COOH, NO₂, Cl, and alkyl groups. While most substituents act as auxochromes, sulfonates are present only to increase the solubility of the dye, which is also improved by amino groups, hydrochlorides thereof, and hydroxyl groups. Many vat dyes have quinonoid groups that are reduced to soluble, colourless hydroquinones in the vatting operation and then oxidized back to the original dye. Similar reactions are utilized in the developing process in colour photography.

Anthraquinone dyes

The recognition of carbon’s tetravalency (1858) and the structure for benzene (1865) proposed by the German chemist Friedrich August Kekulé led to the structural elucidation of aromatic compounds and the rational development of the dye industry. The first example was the elucidation of the alizarin structure in 1868 (see above History of dyes: Natural dyes), followed a year later by its synthesis. Preparations of derivatives gave a host of anthraquinone dyes that today constitute the second largest group of commercial colorants. After 1893 sulfonated anthraquinones provided a group of bright, fast dyes for wool; the unsulfonated analogs are disperse dyes for synthetic fibres. In 1901 German chemist Rene Bohn obtained a brilliant blue vat dye with high fastness properties from experiments expected to produce a new substituted indigo. BASF, the leading manufacturer of vat dyes, marketed Bohn’s dye as Indanthren Blue RS; it was later given the chemical name indanthrone. Related compounds, used primarily as pigments, span the colour range from blue to yellow.

Xanthene and related dyes

In 1871 the German chemist Adolph von Baeyer discovered a new dye class closely related to the triphenylmethane series and also without natural counterparts. Heating phthalic anhydride with resorcinol (1,3-dihydroxybenzene) produced a yellow compound he named fluorescein, because aqueous solutions show an intense fluorescence. Although not useful as a dye, its value as a marker for accidents at sea and as a tracer of underground water flow is well established. Phthalic anhydride and phenol react to give phenolphthalein, which is similar in structure to fluorescein but lacks the oxygen linking two of the aryl rings. Since phenolphthalein is colourless in acid and intensely red in base, it is commonly used as a pH indicator in titrations and also as the active ingredient in mild laxatives, a property said to have been discovered after it was used to enhance the colour of wine. While these compounds lack fastness, some derivatives are useful dyes. Tetrabromofluorescein, or eosin, is a red dye used for paper, inks, and cosmetics; its tetraiodo analog, erythrosine, is a red food dye (see below Food dyes).

Click Here to see full-size tableMany other useful dyes related to these xanthenes also were prepared in the late 1880s. Initially, oxazines and thiazines were used for dyeing silk, but a lack of good lightfastness led to their disappearance from the market. In the 1950s, however, it was found that their lightfastness on acrylic fibres is surprisingly high, and further studies also revealed that triphenylmethane dyes such as malachite green behave similarly. This accidental discovery led to their return as industrial products. Methylene blue is widely used as a biological stain, as first noted by German medical scientist Paul Ehrlich. Its derivative with a nitro group ortho to sulfur is methylene green, which has excellent lightfastness on acrylics. Some thiazines—namely, those with X = NR but lacking the ―N(CH₃)₂ groups—are antihistamines. A number of oxazines and acridines are good leather dyes. Mauve is an azine but is of only historical interest; only one example of this class, Safranine T, is used.

The oldest, most commonly used acid-base indicator, litmus, is a mixture of several oxazine derivatives, obtained by treating various species of lichens with ammonia, potash, and lime. Archil, orchil, and orseille are similar mixtures of dyes, obtained from lichens by different methods; cudbear is the common name for the lichen Ochrolechia tartarea and the dye therefrom.

Azo dyes

Nitrous acid (HONO) was one of the reagents tried in the early experiments with aniline, and in 1858 the German chemist Johann Peter Griess obtained a yellow compound with dye properties. Although used only briefly commercially, this dye sparked interest in the reaction that became the most important process in the synthetic dye industry. The reaction between nitrous acid and an arylamine yields a highly reactive intermediate; the reaction of this intermediate with phenols and aryl amines is the key step in the synthesis of more than 50 percent of the commercial dyes produced today.

The chemistry involved in these reactions was unclear until 1866, when Kekulé proposed correctly that the products have aryl rings linked through a ―N=N― unit, called an azo group; hence, the dyes containing this functional group are termed the azo dyes. The reaction of nitrous acid with Ar―NH₂ (where Ar represents an aryl group) gives Ar―NN⁺, an aryldiazonium ion, which readily couples with anilines or phenols to furnish azo compounds. An early commercial success was chrysoidine, which had been synthesized by coupling aniline to m-phenylenediamine; it was the first azo dye for wool and has been in use since 1875.

Diazotization of both amino groups of m-phenylenediamine followed by coupling with more of the diamine gives Bismark brown, a major component in the first successful disazo dye—i.e., a dye with two azo groups. In 1884 a conjugated disazo dye, Congo red, made by coupling 4-sulfo-1-naphthylamine with bisdiazotized benzidine, was found to dye cotton by simple immersion of the fabric in a hot aqueous bath of the dye. Congo red was the first dye to be known as a direct dye; today it is used as a pH indicator.

Until the 1970s derivatives from methyl- or methoxyl-substituted benzidines constituted the major group of disazo dyes, but they are no longer produced in many countries because they are carcinogens.

The discovery of the azo dyes led to the development of ingrain dyeing, whereby the dye is synthesized within the fabric (see above Dyeing techniques: Azo dyeing techniques). Since the process was done at ice temperature, some dyes were called ice colours. In 1912 it was found that 2-hydroxy-3-naphthanilide (Naphtol AS, from the German Naphtol Anilid Säure) forms a water-soluble anion with affinity for cotton, a major step in the development of the ingrain dyes. Its reaction with unsulfonated azoic diazo components on the fabric gives insoluble dyes with good wetfastness; with Diazo Component 13, Fast Scarlet R is formed, a member of the Naphtol AS series.

Many arylamides have been employed as coupling components, but Naphtol AS is the most important. Since the dye is formed in the dyeing process, the coupler and the diazonium component—as a free base or diazonium salt—are supplied to dyers. More than 100 of each are listed in the Colour Index, so the number of possible combinations is great, but the number of those known to give useful colorants with adequate fastness is much smaller. Many are insoluble in water and can be utilized as pigments.

The ―OH and ―NH₂ groups direct the coupling to the ortho and para sites, and the directive effects are pH-dependent. In alkaline media, coupling is directed by the ―OH groups, whereas ―NH₂ groups direct in weakly acidic media. H-acid (8-amino-1-naphthol-3,6-disulfonic acid) has both functional groups and can be selectively coupled to two diazo components in a two-step process. C.I. Acid Black 1 is formed by coupling first to diazotized p-nitroaniline in weakly acidic solution and then to diazotized aniline in alkaline solution.

Azo dyes became the most important commercial colorants because of their wide colour range, good fastness properties, and tinctorial strength (colour density), which is twice that of the anthraquinones, the second most important group of dyes. Azo dyes are easily prepared from many readily available, inexpensive compounds and meet the demands of a wide range of end uses. Cost advantages tend to offset the fact that these are less brilliant and less lightfast than the anthraquinones.