University of Palermo. PhD in Chemistry

Perkin's Mauve

Mauveine, also known as aniline purple and Perkin's mauve, was the first synthetic organic dye. Its chemical name is 3-amino-2,±9-dimethyl-5-phenyl-7-(p-tolylamino)phenazinium acetate.

Mauveine was discovered serendipitously in 1856 by 18-year old William Henry Perkin, who was trying to synthesize the anti-malaria drug quinine as a challenge from his professor, August Wilhelm von Hofmann. In one of his attempts, Perkin oxidized aniline using potassium dichromate. Under these conditions, the aniline reacted with toluidine impurities in it to produce a black solid, a fairly common result in "failed" organic syntheses. While trying to clean out his flask, Perkin discovered that some component of the black solid dissolved in alcohol to give a purple-colored solution, which proved to be an effective dye for silk and other textiles.

Perkin patented the new dye and the following year he opened a dyeworks at Greenford on the banks of the Grand Union Canal in London to mass produce it. It was originally manufactured under the name of aniline purple or Tyrian purple, also the name of an ancient mollusk-derived natural dye.The name mauve was given to it in England in early 1859, from the French name for the mallow flower, and chemists later called it mauveine. Mauve became highly fashionable in 1862 when Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom appeared at the Royal Exhibition in a mauve silk gown. Mauve fell out of fashion in the late 1860s to newer synthetic colours, but not before making Perkin's fortune and birthing the synthetic chemical industry. The U.S. National Association of Confectioners included mauvein among permitted food colourings as of the early 20th century, with a variety of equivalent names: rosolan, violet paste, chrome violet, anilin violet, anilin purple, Perkins violet, indisin, phenamin, purpurin, tyralin, Tyrian purple, and lydin. Later work on chemical dyes also led to the (accidental) development of modern chemotherapy.

The colour of this dye may be familiar due to its widespread use in spirit duplicator (trade name Ditto) printing machines, popular during the mid-20th century.

This site was developed – in honour of William Perkin – using mauve colour and its variations: light mauve, opera mauve and mauve taupe.