Electrobleaching of cotton fabrics in sodium chloride solution

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to describe an alternative method based on electrochemistry to bleach cotton fabrics. Electrolysis of cotton fabrics soaked in proper electrolyte as a bleaching technology has been studied in this work. Some experiments have been conducted by applying this technique to see the whiteness index effect on fabric cotton. The duration of every experiment was two hours, and it has been applied different currents to study the whiteness index, as well as wetting agent has been used. Once the optimal conditions have been established, a treatment with reuse of the electrolyte and wetting agent has been carried out and six samples have been analysed in these conditions. It has been observed how the cotton fabric was bleaching with the same electrolyte and the whiteness index was similar every time and better than the conventional treatment. In addition, resistance and surface morphology did not present any noticeable weakness at fabrics submitted to electrolysis.