Abstract

The recent public awareness and consciousness about environmental protection followed by the strict Government regulatory orders in some countries on the manufacture and the use of dyes based on benzidine and its analogues due to their carcinogenicity and to the growing consumer preference for non-toxic materials have obliged the leather industry to use non-benzidine based dyes. This has necessitated the development of analytical techniques for distinguishing benzidine based dyes from non-benzidine based dyes. A gas chromatographic method using a mass selective detector for the unambiguous identification of benzidine dyes by recording the mass spectrum of the peak corresponding to the retention time of benzidine and quantification of benzidine by monitoring the peak area of the ion of 184 amu is described in this communication.