Anthracene is a complex hydrocarbon contained in coal-tar, and obtained from the highest-boiling portion of the tar,
namely the so-called 'green grease', which forms the last portion of the heavy oil or dead oil resulting in the fractional distillation of the tar. Anthracene is a commercial product of some importance, as a source of alizarine and numerous other dyes of a similar kind. The commercial product forms a hard crystalline cake containing some 50 percent of anthracene; when pure it crystallizes in the form of glistening, white plates showing a bluish-violet fluorescence, and has neither taste nor smell. Several colours used in dyeing are known as 'anthracene colours'. Research Anthracene
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