Indigo is the most important vat dye, dating back to ancient times and produced on an industrial scale since 1880. To replace the indigo dyes, the indanthrone (21) class of dyes was developed. Indanthrone has superior characteristics as a vat dye and became a key material for further development of anthraquinoid vat dyes. There exist a variety of anthraquinone vat dyes differing in the chromophoric system. The color-structure relationship of vat dyes have been rationalized by the Pariser-Parr-Pople molecular orbital (PPP MO) method. Some examples of commercialized anthraquinoid vat dyes are shown in Scheme 6.14
Scheme 6