Bleach - Textile Bleaching, Pulp Bleaching, Household And Commercial Laundering
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Bleaches are substances that whiten textiles and paper by chemical reaction. These reactions usually involve processes that degrade color. They may destroy or modify chemical bonds or groups that give fabrics their characteristic colors. This process degrades color bodies into smaller, more soluble units that are easily removed in laundering. Conventional bleaching agents, include two types: chlorine-based bleaches, such as sodium hypochlorite, and peroxygen bleaching agents such as hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate.
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A Swedish chemist discovered chlorine gas in 1784 and succeeded in demonstrating its use for decolorizing vegetable dyes. Fifteen years later a patent was awarded for a bleaching powder formed by the absorption of chlorine gas into dry hydrate of lime. Following World War I the technology for shipping liquid chlorine was developed. This allowed for on-site production of sodium hypochlorite in text…
Before the twentieth century, home laundry bleaching in the United States was done by the same method used by the Romans and Gauls in ancient times: clothes were first laundered in a mildly alkaline bath then subjected to sunlight. In 1910, 20 sodium hypochlorite solutions were developed and distributed regionally in the United States. By the mid-1930s these solutions had become available nationwi…
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