Abstract
The textile industry needs a high volume of water to carry out its processes, which among them; textile chemical finishing is the main responsible for high water expenditure. However, nowadays there is a worldwide concern regarding the scarcity of fresh water. This research aims to study the use of seawater in the cotton bleaching process and compare the results obtained with the bleaching process made with distilled water. The characterization of the substrates was performed through the following analyses: reflectance spectrophotometry, white degree (oBerger), wettability, tensile strength, elongation, scanning electron microscopy and dispersive energy spectroscopy. The bleaching with seawater presented good whiteness index, high tensile strength values and excellent hydrophilicity, which suggest that it may be possible to perform this process in cotton fabric using seawater.
Highlights
The global water crisis is a much discussed subject among study groups, institutes of technology and development and governments[1,2]
The sector which is responsible for the greatest water demand is chemical textile finishing, which consist of a set of processes applied to textile materials in order to transform them, from the raw state, into white, dyed, printed and finished substrates[5]
There are several factors that directly influence the parameters of each process executed in the finishing area, such as the type of feedstock to be processed and its properties, the sensitivity it presents to the action of chemical products and the susceptibility of the fiber to chemical modifications[6]
Summary
The global water crisis is a much discussed subject among study groups, institutes of technology and development and governments[1,2]. This concern is due to the fact that water has fundamental importance for the life of all species, is the universal solvent, and supplies a large part of the industries[3,4]. Among the main textile finishing is the bleaching process, which aims to remove natural pigments from the fibers, make the substrate white, and leave it apt to undergo further chemical processes, such as dyeing and printing[7,8]. Considering the imminent shortage of fresh water in Brazil and around in the world, and the need to save this precious resource, the application of seawater in textile bleaching processes may be innovative due to its great availability (more than 97% of the Earth’s total water supply4) and the fact that it has not been evaluated yet
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