How were artificial dyes invented?

1853, Perkin, who was only 15 years old, has been an assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institute of Chemistry. At that time, malaria was prevalent, and quinine, the specific drug for treating malaria, was extracted from cinchona tree, which was quite precious. Perkin tried to extract quinine from coal tar under the guidance of his teacher Hoffman. However, the experimental results are not satisfactory, and there is no quinine expected by Perkin, but a brownish red precipitate is obtained. Perkin was not discouraged, so he decided to switch to another new substance. Unexpectedly, the result of changing the substance turned out to be a more unexpected black precipitate.

In order to find out the reason, he washed the black mass with alcohol. Unexpectedly, those black substances dissolved in alcohol turned bright purple. Perkin was pleasantly surprised by this discovery. He immediately realized that he might have found a substance that could be used for dyeing. So he dyed a pure white scarf purple with this solution, dried it and washed it with soap in hot water, but it didn't fade.

Perkin was overjoyed and immediately sent some samples to a textile factory. As a result, the purple compound had good performance. Perkin immediately applied for a patent for this technology in August 1856. 1857 set up a factory near Harrow to produce aniline violet dye, becoming a pioneer in the synthetic dye industry.

The purple basic dye invented by Perkin is not only suitable for dyeing wool fabrics, but also can be used for dyeing cotton fabrics together with tannic acid. This luxurious dye not only fascinated ladies and gentlemen, but more importantly, it was favored by Queen Victoria. In addition, aniline violet dye is also used in the printing of stamps.

Perkin invented aniline violet dye, which made many scientists interested in developing synthetic dyes full of confidence. Encouraged by Perkin's amazing achievements, many chemists turned to the development of synthetic dyes. Later, people consciously explored the molecular structure of various dyes, consciously carried out artificial synthesis experiments, and artificial dyes came out one after another.