Vat dye sensitised fibre damage and dye fading by catalytic and activated peroxide bleaching

At equal levels of performance, activated (TAED) and catalytic (Mn‐TMTACN) laundry bleaching can differ considerably in terms of the concomitant damage to fibres and dyes. To quantify this damage, differently dyed cotton fabrics, and a representative set of eight vat dyes and CI Reactive Brown 7 were used. It is shown that dye fading and fibre degradation are dye‐specific and are both highly coupled phenomena. The interpretation of the damage data is based on dye chemistry, reflectance spectroscopy (UV/VIS and NIR) and EPR measurements. Whereas compelling evidence for a genuine catalytic cycle with the quoted manganese complex is lacking, a possible catalytic role of the dyes is proposed. The dramatic green shift resulting from the catalytic bleaching of Cl Vat Blue 4 is explained in detail. The corresponding oxidation is reversible and possibly useful as a fibre damage indicator.