Sodium perborate bleaching of cotton by using tetraacetyl ethylenediamine activator

In the present work, attempt has been made to bleach the scoured cotton fabric with sodium perborate as bleaching agent and tetraacetyl ethylenediamine as bleach activator. The concentrations of these chemicals, temperature and time of the treatment have been varied. When sodium perborate comes in contact with water in bleaching bath, it releases hydrogen peroxide which is responsible for bleaching action on cotton. The findings of this novel process on the quality of bleached fabric are compared with the fabric bleached conventionally using only hydrogen peroxide. The results show that the utilization of generated hydrogen peroxide reaches as high as 96% in the modified bleaching process, which is only 70% in the case of conventional bleaching. Further, the modified bleaching process requires less water and energy, thus fulfilling the requirements of ecofriendly process. Loss in weight, tearing strength and tensile strength are found less comparing to conventional bleaching without compromising with whiteness index. CIE whiteness with conventional bleaching is 57, whereas modified recipe shows 61 whiteness.