Combination of Surfactant Action with Peroxide Activation for Room‐Temperature Cleaning of Textiles

Abstract

AbstractRoom‐temperature cleaning of textiles is commonly practiced in many countries for energy saving as well as custom in daily life, but not very effective for removing colored contaminants. In this work, it was proposed to combine surfactant action (SA) with peroxide activation (PA) in a peroxide activator to enable cleaning of textiles at room temperature. N‐[4‐(alkyldimethylammoniomethyl)benzoyl]lactam chloride was designed and synthesized as a prototype of the proposed peroxide activator, in which the alkyl chain with a carbon atom number of n was responsible for surfactant action and the N‐benzoyllactam with a carbon atom number of m in the lactam ring was responsible for peroxide activation. Such a peroxide activator was hereby referred to as SAPAm‐n. The room‐temperature cleaning performance of SAPAm‐n was examined by cotton fabrics contaminated with morin and waste engine oil, respectively. It was found that SAPAm‐n was able to activate hydrogen peroxide released from sodium perborate so as to effectively bleach the morin‐contaminated cotton fabric at room temperature. Though extending the alkyl chain length of SAPAm‐n resulted in no apparent effect on the room‐temperature bleaching performance, it enhanced the surfactant action which contributed to removing oily contaminants from textiles. Color‐safe performance of SAPAm‐n was evaluated by cleaning a dyed cotton fabric at room temperature. It was found that the peroxide bleach activated by SAPAm‐n resulted in no apparent color change of the dyed cotton fabric. The results of this study provide new insights on textile cleaning at room temperature for the purpose of energy saving.