Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2010, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (03): 589-594.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB20100301

• ELECTROCHEMISTRY • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Indirect Electrochemical Reduction of Indigo Using Fe-Triethonolamine

MA Chun-An, ZHOU Ya-Ming, XU Ying-Hua, JIANG Huan-Huan, LI Shan-Shan   

  1. State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Green Chemistry-Synthesis Technology, College of Chemical Engineering and Materials, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310032, P. R. China
  • Received:2009-09-16 Revised:2009-12-25 Published:2010-03-03
  • Contact: MA Chun-An, XU Ying-Hua E-mail:science@zjut.edu.cn; xuyh@zjut.edu.cn

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Abstract:

Fe-triethonolamine (Fe-TEA) complexes as mediator are well suitable for the indirect reduction of indigo. In our work, the reduction of indigo was investigated in a Fe-TEA systemby cyclic voltammetry (CV). The electrocatalytic performance of four kinds of cathode materials (graphite, silver, nickel, and stainless steel) for the reduction of Fe(III)-TEA was compared. Further experiments were carried out to compare the effects of operating parameters including temperature, current, concentrations of NaOH and Fe(III)-TEA. Experimental results showed that this new route was feasible for the production of water-soluble indigo. A high current efficiency (44.7%) was achieved using optimized conditions and the concentration of the Fe(III)-TEA mediator was found to be the main influence. A new indigo radical mediator was formed during electrolysis and under certain condition, the effect of this indigo radical on the current efficiency was larger than that of Fe(III)-TEA.

Key words: Electrochemical dyeing, Indigo, Vat dye, Indirect electrochemical reduction

MSC2000: 

  • O646