%0 Journal Article %T Effect of Reaction Conditions on Production of Catechinone Hair Dyestuff in Water/Alcohol Mixed Solution %A Takanori Matsubara %A Isao Wataoka %A Hiroshi Urakawa %A Hidekazu Yasunaga %J Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science %P 292-299 %@ 2160-0406 %D 2014 %I Scientific Research Publishing %R 10.4236/aces.2014.43032 %X 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 %K Catechinone %K Hair Dyestuff %K (+)-Catechin %K Chemical Preparation %K Water/Alcohol Mixed Solution %U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=47589