Cationic bleach activators for improving cotton bleaching

Bleaching cotton with hydrogen peroxide requires either high temperatures or long dwell times. Recently developed cationic compounds that rapidly react with hydrogen peroxide to give peracids have been shown to substantially decrease the amount of time necessary to achieve a commercially acceptable white fabric. In this work, commercial recipes for cold pad batch bleaching of knitted cotton fabric were initially investigated. These recipes were used as benchmarks to assess the effectiveness of the cationic activator system. The cationic activator/hydrogen peroxide bleaching system was found to provide comparable fabric whiteness in pad batch processes at much shorter reaction times. In addition to shorter bleaching cycles, potential benefits include improved fabric physical properties and simpler bleach formulas.