Direct Electrochemical Reduction of Indigo

Authors

  • Albert Roessler Department of Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Hönggerberg, CH-8093 Zürich
  • Otmar Dossenbach Department of Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Hönggerberg, CH-8093 Zürich
  • Ulrich Meyer Department of Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Hönggerberg, CH-8093 Zürich
  • Walter Marte Tex-A-Tec AG, Anlagen und Prozesstechnik, Industriegebiet Farch, CH-9630 Wattwil (SG)
  • Paul Rys Department of Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Hönggerberg, CH-8093 Zürich

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2001.879

Keywords:

Electrochemical reduction, Indigo, Indigo radical, Leuco indigo, Vat dyes

Abstract

Increasing ecoefficiency of textile wet processes has become an important topic in our research group. Reducing agents required for the application of vat and sulfur dyes cannot be recycled, and they lead to problematic waste products. Therefore, modern aspects of economical and ecological requirements are not fulfilled. The application of direct electrochemical reduction of indigo as a novel route has been investigated by spectrophotometric and voltammetric experiments in laboratory cells. Experiments yield information about the reaction mechanism and the kinetics, and they show the possibility of this new route for production of water- soluble indigo, which offers tremendous environmental benefits.

Downloads

Published

2001-10-31

How to Cite

[1]
A. Roessler, O. Dossenbach, U. Meyer, W. Marte, P. Rys, Chimia 2001, 55, 879, DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2001.879.

Issue

Vol. 55 No. 10 (2001): The Department of Chemistry, ETH Zürich, in the New Hönggerberg Buildings

Section

Scientific Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2001 Swiss Chemical Society

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.