Optimization of low temperature bleaching of cotton using statistical modelling

Abstract

Very high temperatures (e.g. ~98 °C) are mainly used to perform hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) bleaching of cotton fabrics in industrial practice. Such harsh conditions can lead to high fabric damages and high energy consumptions. In recent years, an extensive research is being done to reduce the temperature for industrial cotton bleaching process. Similar attempt has been made in the present work, where the synthesized polyamidoamine dendrimers have been used as a stabilizer in the place of sodium silicate. The low temperature bleaching was optimized using a statistical model. An optimized recipe was formulated based on the half factorial central composite design and numerical optimization solution by Design-Expert 6.0 software. The performance of the optimized sample was compared with the sample using traditional method of bleaching and achieved the lower bleaching temperature of 70–80 °C than the traditional bleaching temperature with fabric’s whiteness index comparable.