BLEACHING

Bleaching --- What and When??

A process to remove
• The natural colouring material
• Any other colouring material from natural fibres or
man-made fibres

 When fibres are to be dyed to very dark shades, where

fibres brightness is not so important
 no bleaching is required

 For light and medium shades , fibre brightness is

important
 bleaching is an essential operation before dyeing and
printing

 In case of man-made fibres if the process sequence causes

slight dis-colouration that sometimes cannot be
 How ????

 The natural colouring material can be destroyed

 by oxidation

 by reduction

Bleaching Agents
• Oxidation bleaching agents
– Chlorine
– Hydrogen Peroxide

• Reduction bleaching agents

– Sodium sulphite
– Sodium hydrosulphite
 Oxidizing bleaching agents

 Use oxygen directly or indirectly for the bleaching

 Nascent oxygen decomposes colouring matter

completely into simpler compounds

 Simpler compounds are washed away with water

during washing

 Do not give any trouble at the later stage

• Reducing bleaching agents

– The nascent hydrogen combines with the colouring

matter in the fibre to produce a colourless compound

– The compound however remains in the fabric and

gets oxidized back to the original colouring matter upon
exposure to the air

• Hence the whiteness produced is not permanent

 Sodium Hypochlorite (NaOCl)

 It is the oldest industrial method of bleaching cotton

 Sodium hypochlorite is the strongest agent

 It is capable of giving oxygen at room temperature

 It is also economical in use

 Prior to bleaching with hypochlorite it is necessary to

thoroughly scour fabrics to remove fats, waxes and pectin
impurities
 This impurities will reduce the available hypochlorite,
reducing its effectiveness for whitening fabrics
 Mechanism
NaOCl + H2O NaOH + HOCl

HOCl HCl + [O]

NaOCl + HCl NaCl + HOCl

HOCl + HCl H2O + Cl2

 Sodium hypochlorite dissolves in water to give the
hypochlorous acid (HOCl)

 HOCl is unstable and dissociates to yield active oxygen and

hydrochloric acid (HCl)

 To avoid the fibre damage it is advisable to maintain a pH

of 10.5 to 11 and for that
 Sodium carbonate is added

 Small amount of NaOH is also added as pH stabiliser

 Cellulose textiles are to be bleached very carefully with
hypochlorite

 The four factors affecting the bleaching efficiency are:

 Concentration of the bleaching liquor

 Its temperature

 Its pH (pH between 10 – 11 is to be maintained; pH

below 9 will accelerate the degradation of cellulose)
 The time of bleaching
 The greater the concentration of the bleach liquor, the
better the bleaching result but the greater the risk of
chemical damage to the cellulose

 The time and temperature must be standardized to

minimize the chemical damage

 The pH should be controlled in between 10 and 11, a fall in

pH to below 9 accelerating the degradation of the cellulose
material through the formation of oxy-cellulose
 Advantages
 Low chemical cost

 Low energy output

 Low cost of equipment

 Disadvantages
 The formation of high level of AOX(Absorbable organic
halogens) results in environmental hazards
 Rapid bleaching process is not possible with hypochlorite

 Danger of tendering of the material if pH and

temperature is not controlled
 Cotton goods must be scoured before hypochlorite
bleaching
 Imparts harsh feel to the bleached fabric
 SOURING
 It is an acid treatment generally given to hypochlorite
bleached goods

 Dilute hydrochloric acid at room temperature is generally

used
 It is very difficult to remove traces of alkali even after
thorough washing. The alkali needs to be neutralized,
otherwise it may get concentrated and result in the
formation of oxy-cellulose during drying

 In case of bleaching powder, the calcium carbonate

formed during the bleaching is deposited on the fabric
and cannot be removed by simple washing. It imparts a
harsh feel to the cloth
 Sulphuric acid may also be used for souring when
bleaching is carried out with sodium hypochlorite

 But it is not suitable when bleaching with calcium

hypochlorite because of the formation of calcium sulphate,
which will deposited on the fabric yielding a harsh feel
 The reaction with the HCl will give the soluble chloride
 Complete removal of acid is required after souring before
the cloth is dried

 Any traces of acid will cause degradation of the cellulose

material because of the increased concentration of the acid
on drying

 Also the goods should not contain any hypochlorite

because over bleaching may take place during souring
 Presence of hypochlorite is souring will cause intensive
action of hypochlorite by decreasing the pH of the
solution to the neutral level
 To avoid this the goods may be given “antichlor”
treatment with a solution of sodium bisulphite or sodium
thiosulphite, which destroys the residual hypochlorite in
 Precautions during souring
 Concentration of acid solution to be controlled

 Control of process temperature

 Intermediate local drying of the fabric should never be

allowed
 Optimum dwell period should be standardized
Antichlor Treatment

 An antichlor treatment with reducing agent may be given

after the hypochlorite treatment to ensure removal of any
residual chlorine from the bleached fabric

 Chloramines are formed which cause after-yellowing of the

material

 Reducing agents used

 Sodium bisulphite (NaHSO )
3

 Sodium thiosulphate (Na2S2O3)

 Sodium hydrosulphite (Na2S2O4)
 Peroxide Bleaching (H2O2)

 Universal bleaching agent

 Applicable for almost all textile material

 Including wool, silk and manmade fibres

 Bleaching is carried out at raised temperature

 Hence can be utilised for simultaneous scouring and
bleaching

 H2O2 is colourless liquid, soluble in water, highly stable in

acidic condition but stability decreases as the alkalinity
increases
 Stabilizers
 H O will decompose readily to form the bleach active
2 2
nascent oxygen

 To ensure a fairly uniform availability of bleaching

action, stabilizers are used

 The commonly used stabilizer is sodium silicate (NaSiO3)

 The use of slightly hard water is preferred for hydrogen

peroxide bleaching as the presence of magnesium salts
in water improves the effectiveness of sodium silicate
stabilizer
 Recipe for peroxide bleaching
Hydrogen peroxide = 2 – 8%
Sodium silicate = 3%
Soda ash = 0.8 to 6%
Sodium hydroxide = 0.4 – 0.6%
Initial pH – 10.3 – 12
Temperature – 90 degree celcius
 Peroxide Killers
 After peroxide bleaching and rinsing, if traces of
peroxide are left on the fabric, it will affect the dye
uptake and give rise to uneven dyeing

 Hence peroxide killers are used to remove the residual

peroxide from the fabric

 The various methods for removal of peroxide are

 Vigorous rinsing
 Treatment with inorganic reducing agents
 Enzyme treatment

 E.g – Finostab, Basopal etc.

 Advantages

 There is generally no need for thorough scouring before

peroxide bleaching

 It is environmentally acceptable as it has no absorbable

halogen

 Hydrogen peroxide is compatible with optical brightening

agents

 It involves low risk of chemical damage to cotton

 Disadvantages

 High cost

 High risk of local damage to cotton and wastage of

peroxide due to possible metallic contamination in water
 Sodium Chlorite (NaClO2)

 It is versatile

 Can be used for cotton as well as other fibres and mixtures

with manmade fibres

 Cannot be used for silk and wool

 More expensive than peroxide

 Little tendering due to the presence of metallic ions

 Mechanism
 Sodium chlorite is soluble in water to give a stable solution
with a pH of about 10

 An acidified solution of sodium chlorite contains chlorous

(HClO2) acid, the amount of which depends upon the pH
and the temperature of the bath

 It is to be noted that acidified chlorite solutions are very

reactive and cause corrosion to commonly used metallic
vessels
 For this reason vessels lined with resistant materials
such as glass or ceramics are used
 Corrosive inhibitors like sodium nitrate can also be
used in the bleaching solution
 Bleaching process
 The bleaching liquor may be made up with the sodium
chlorite ( 1 – 2 %) and a wetting agent and brought to a
pH around 4.0 with addition of acetic or formic acid at
800C for 2-3 hours of bleaching action

5ClO2- + 2H+ 4ClO2 + Cl- + 2OH-

3ClO2- 2ClO3 + Cl-

ClO2- 2Cl + 2(O)-

 Advantages
 Pre-scouring is not required

 Effectively bleaches the lignin present in the woody

matter
 Soft fabric handle and good sewability due to non-
removal of fats
 Least risk of chemical damage to cotton in chlorite
bleaching
 Least sensitive to metallic contamination in the process
water
 Disadvantages
 Possibility of liberation of toxic chlorine dioxide gas

 Equipment is expensive because of the need of corrosion

resistant material
 Chlorite bleached fabric has poor absorbency and thus is
not suitable for further dyeing and printing
 Sodium chlorite is very expensive

 It is incompatible with optical whitening agents

OPTICAL WHITENING
• Certain organic compounds possess the property of
fluorescence which means that they can absorb shorter
wave length light and re-emit longer wave-length. A
substance can absorb invisible ultraviolet rays and re-emit
them within the visible spectrum. Therefore, a surface
containing a fluorescent compound can emit more than the
total amount of daylight that falls on it, giving an
intensively brilliant white. Compounds that posses these
properties are known as OBA.

• When OBA treated fabric are exposed to UV light bulbs, the

fabric glow in the dark; thus conclusion can be drawn that
the fabric is treated with OBA
• There are several classes of chemicals whose
structure serve the purpose. These structures
have dye like properties and in essence are
colourless dyes. They can exhaust onto various
fibres.

• Anionic OBA’s will exhaust onto cotton, wool and

silk.
• Cationic ones exhaust onto acrylic and certain
polyesters.
• Nonionic exhaust onto all synthetics
• OBA,s are not a substitute for bleaching. They are used to
obtain brilliant market whites. These "white" whites can be
obtained without over bleaching and damaging the fiber.

• On cellulose, they have poor wash fastness but most

commercial laundry detergents contain OBA's so they are
constantly replenished.

• Some OBAs have poor washfastness - some nonionics

types have excellent light fastness.

• Fiber producers can include OBA,s in their spinning

process. These can have excellent durability to both light
and washing.
BIO-POLISHING
 The purpose of bio-polishing or bio-finishing is to get a soft
handle and attractive clean appearance of the fabric

 Cotton or cotton blend fabric contains small cellulosic

protruding fibres or microfibrils that make the surface of
the fabric rough and fuzzy

 The problems associated with fuzz can also be eliminated

by
 Singeing

 Applying silicon softner to soften the surface of the fabric

 By enzymatic bio-polishing
 Drawback of singeing
 Chance of fire hazards

 Drawbacks of silicon softners

 Reduces the water absorbency

 They are washed out and the fabric becomes rough

again

 Enzymatic removal of fuzz is absolutely safe, efficient and

permanent as it is carried out in mild chemical and physical
condition with accurate control

 Cellulase enzymes are usually classified by the pH range in

which they are most effective viz. acid stable, neutral
 The enzyme cellulase degrades the cellulosic fuzz on the
surface thus increases the lustre and smoothness of the
fabric
 Certain properties are however adversed
 Weight loss of the fabric

 Loss in fabric strength

 Recipe:
Enzyme dosage = 1 – 5% on fabric weight (depending
upon the activity of enzyme
Liquor ratio = 1: 5 to 1: 15
Time = 60 – 120 minutes (depending upon amount of
hydrolysis required)
Temperature = 50 – 600C