Polarographic studies in the anthraquinone series

Abstract

Polarographic chemical analysis, although invented only twenty-five years ago, has already become a standard method for the research worker and industrial analyst alike. The variety of topics in pure, bio- and commercial chemistry which may be investigated easily with the polarograph, as well as its application to microchemistry, has found it a place in laboratories throughout the world.

The main part of the present investigation has been directed towards systematic study of the polarography of variously substituted anthraquinones. The chemistry of anthraquinones and a large number of its derivatives is well known, as a result of extensive research carried out early in this century, when these compounds were in common use as dyestuffs. Other more efficient dyes have replaced them from this field, but in recent years chemists investigating natural products have taken considerable interest in a large number of derivatives from various sources, with a view to elucidating their structures and studying other properties, rather than exploiting them as dyes.