Synthetic indigo (BASF)
Índigo sintético (BASF)
- Date
- 1897 · confidence high
- Place
- Ludwigshafen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
- Credited to
- Adolf von Baeyer, Karl Heumann and BASF
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Industrial synthesis of indigo from naphthalene by Heumann's route, marketed by BASF in 1897 after 17 years of development. It collapsed indigo cultivation in India and gave the blue of jeans.
Baeyer synthesised indigo in 1878 and patented a route in 1880, but it was unviable; Heumann's route (1890-1897, phenylglycine) and BASF made economic production possible. Baeyer won the 1905 Nobel Prize for his work on dyes.
What it led to
- collapse of the Bengal indigo plantations (1900-1914)
- cheap, uniform blue for cotton, uniforms and denim
- BASF as an industrial chemistry giant