Bleaching of cotton with activated peroxide systems

Abstract

The bleaching performance of a novel cationic bleach activator, N‐[4‐(triethylammoniomethyl)benzoyl]‐caprolactam chloride, was compared to that of nonanoyloxybenzene sulphonate, a commercially available anionic bleach activator. The whiteness of bleached cotton fabric was used as a measure of the performance. Comparison of bleach performance and the effect of key variables were evaluated using a central composite experimental design. The performances of both activators increased with temperature and sodium hydroxide concentration. Also, the performance of the cationic bleach activator increased with activator concentration, while an increase in the concentration of nonanoyloxybenzene sulphonate gave an adverse effect on the performance. It was found that the cationic bleach activator was superior to the anionic activator in the hot bleaching of cotton under the conditions studied.