posted on 2022-04-04, 18:47authored byMatthew
P. Heaney, Daniel K. Unruh, Tomče Runčevski
β-Naphthol
reds are a group of widely used pigments with
prominent historical, commercial, and cultural significance. In industry,
and especially within the art and heritage community, they are known
as azo pigments. However, β-naphthols, very often, are not azo
pigments. Because of enol/keto tautomerization of the 1-arylhydrazone-2-naphthol
skeleton, these pigments oftentimes crystallize as hydrazones (keto).
Therefore, proper characterization is necessary for understanding
their intrinsic physicochemical properties and chemical reactivity
in the solid state, as well as their stability and lightfastness.
Crystallographic studies have indicated that β-naphthol reds
tend to adopt the hydrazone form in the solid state. Here, we continue
these structural investigations, and we focused on two prominent β-naphthol
reds, pigment red 40 (PR40) and pigment red 4 (PR4). Using single-crystal
X-ray diffraction, we provide decisive proof that both of these pigments
are keto/hydrazones in the solid state. Therefore, the frequent yet
erroneous designation as azo pigments should be avoided. To confirm
the bulk structure, we performed powder diffraction experiments, followed
by Rietveld refinement. We complemented the diffraction experiments
with spectroscopic (IR, Raman, UV–vis) and thermal (TGA, DSC)
analyses. Furthermore, we studied the lightfastness of both chromophores
in solution and the solid state. While the solid-state pigments were
stable over the course of the experiment, UV irradiation of solutions
resulted in degradation, which was studied by chromatographic and
mass-spectrometry techniques. We hope that this research will bring
to light the necessity of proper solid-state characterization of β-naphthol
reds, as well as pigments as a whole.