Investigation of bleaching of cotton fabrics with UV-TiO2

Abstract

Titanium dioxide exhibits photocatalytic properties under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. In this study, an environ-mentally friendly, fast and efficient technique for bleaching cotton fabrics is presented, utilising the photoca-talytic property of TiO2. Raw cotton fabric samples were treated with TiO2-containing and TiO2-free treatment solutions (hydrogen peroxide and sodium hydroxide) under UV irradiation in order to bleach the samples. The results showed that cotton fabrics treated with TiO2 were bleached satisfactorily without severe strength loss.