Hydrogen Peroxide Bleaching of Cationized Cotton Fabric

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) is the most commonly used bleaching agent for cotton fabric. However, the conventional H 2 O 2 bleaching formula is not applicable for cationized cotton due to the low whiteness index after bleaching, fabric weakening, and a significant loss of cationic sites. In this work, magnesium sulfate (MgSO 4 ) was added in the H 2 O 2 bleaching formula to stabilize the bleaching system for cationized cotton. Additionally, a screening experiment with temperature and time, and sodium hydroxide (NaOH), H 2 O 2 , and MgSO 4 concentrations as the factors, and whiteness index, bursting strength, and color strength from dyeing as the responses, was formulated. A statistical model was created using JMP software, which demonstrated how the bleaching conditions influenced the fabric properties. This procedure can be useful for bleaching cationized cotton in production settings.