Effect of Reaction Conditions on Production of Catechinone Hair Dyestuff in Water/Alcohol Mixed Solution

Catechinone hair dyestuff was produced chemically from (+)-catechin by the oxidation with O2 in basic water/alcohol mixed solution. The effects of reaction conditions such as basicity, sorts of added base, temperature, alcohol molar fraction of solvent and sorts of added alcohols on the catechinone formation were studied in order to increase the efficiency of the dyestuff production. The amount of obtained catechinone increases with increasing basicity of the reaction solution. The dyestuff is obtained by adding monoethanol amine, diethanol amine, triethanol amine, L-arginine, Na2CO3, K2CO3, Na3PO4 or NaOH into the solution as a base and the most preferable base is monoethanol amine. The optimum temperature for the production in water/ethanol solution is 30 ̊C. It was found that water-soluble alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol, 1-propanol and tert-butyl alcohol are available for preparing the dyestuff. The optimum alcohol molar fraction of the mixed solvent used for the dye formation is 0.45 for methanol, 0.25 for ethanol and 0.20 for 2-propanol, 0.15 for 1-propanol and 0.10 for tert-butyl alcohol. The amount of the obtained dyestuff reaches a maximum at 1) 0.35 and 0.59, 2) 0.35 or 3) 0.35 mol∙kg−1 of the concentration of (+)-catechin for the 1) water/methanol, 2) water/ethanol or 3) water/1-propanol system, respectively.