Effect of Hydrogen Peroxide Concentration on 100% Cotton Knit Fabric Bleaching

Abstract

This paper focuses on the effect of different concentration of hydrogen peroxide (an oxidizing bleaching agent) on 100% single jersey cotton knit fabric. Five different concentrations (25%, 30%, 35%, 40% and 45%) of hydrogen peroxide solution (5% stock solution) were adopted for this experiment. For each individual concentration, bleaching was performed in three different quantities (6gm/L, 8gm/L and 10gm/L) at the same temperature (100˚C) and same time (60 minute) cycle. 5gm samples were taken where 1:10 material and liquor ratio was maintained in each operation. Spectrophotometer (data color 650) was used to test the reflectance of all bleached samples, and their bursting strengths were measured by an Auto burst instrument following ISO 13938-1 method. The effects of hydrogen peroxide concentration on various physical properties such as weight loss, absorbency, GSM, bursting strength, and whiteness was studied to minimize the cost of bleaching process by optimizing the concentration of hydrogen peroxide. As majority of industries have concerned to alineate the production cost with maximum quality assurance which has been obtained through bleaching at 30% concentration.