The evaluation of ozonation as an environmentally friendly alternative for cotton preparation

Ozone is a strongly oxidative gas that is generally used in medical sterilization and decolorization of the effluent of textile spent dyebaths. Recent studies have reported the use of ozone to bleach textile fabrics. In this study, ozone was utilized in cotton preparation for greige, desized and scoured 100% cotton fabrics. Hydrogen peroxide bleaching was performed as the control treatment. The degree of whiteness of cotton increased after prolonged ozonation times. The scoured samples reached the whiteness level of the control (hydrogen peroxide bleached) samples. The whiteness of the hydrogen peroxide bleached, 60-min ozonated and 90-min ozonated samples all had a Stensby degree of whiteness of 81 for the scoured fabric samples. The strength loss after prolonged ozonation times was negligible. Ozonation increased the starch-size removal of the greige cotton samples and the water absorbency of the greige and desized cotton samples.