Effect of the Bleaching on Physical and Mechanical Properties of Different Fabrics

Two different commercial bleaching products containing hypochlorite were used on different fabrics (plain-weave cotton, knitted cotton, plain-weave polyester-cotton and knitted lycra-cotton) to verify possible fibres damages. Bleaching products differ each other for the alkaline formulation. In particular, one of them has an alkaline bleaching formulation and the other has a low-alkaline bleaching formulation. The degree of whiteness, the tensile and bursting strength, and the thermal and surface properties were evaluated after a different number of washing cycles. The obtained results reveal that the alkaline bleaching product is better than the low-alkaline bleaching product in maintaining mechanical properties and in improving optical properties of the fabrics.