Performance Evaluation of the Percarbonate and Perborate Bleach Activators Synthesized by a Low-Cost, Two-Step Method from Phenol

Bleach activators decrease the energy consumption and fabrics damage in the process of laundry and industrial cotton bleaching. Herein, we demonstrate a low-cost, two-step method for the synthesis of sodium nonanoyloxybenzene sulfonate and sodium lauroyloxybenzene sulfonate from phenol as a simple precursor material for efficient bleach activators. Initially, phenol was sulfonated to sodium p-phenolsulfonate. In the second step, it was acylated with nonanoyl chloride and dodecanoyl chloride to synthesize sodium nonanoyloxybenzene sulfonate and sodium lauroyloxybenzene sulfonate, respectively. Sodium p-phenolsulfonate and the obtained bleach activators were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, IR-, and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The investigation of their detergency efficiency on different stains and substrates revealed that the as-synthesized bleach activators outperform the commercial tetraacetylethylenediamine (TAED) at room temperature (25°C). The detergency efficiency of sodium lauroyloxybenzene sulfonate for hydrophobic stains at a rather low temperature of 40°C remarkably rises to about 90%.

Reactions in Activated Peroxide Systems and their Influences on Bleaching Performance

Abstract:: Activated peroxide systems are formed by adding so-called bleach activators to aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide, developed in the seventies of the last century for use in domestic laundry for their high energy efficiency and introduced at the beginning of the 21st century to the textile industry as an approach toward overcoming the extensive energy consumption in bleaching. In activated peroxide systems, bleach activators undergo perhydrolysis to generate more kinetically active peracids that enable bleaching under milder conditions while hydrolysis of bleach activators and decomposition of peracids may occur as side reactions to weaken the bleaching efficiency. This mini-review aims to summarize these competitive reactions in activated peroxide systems and their influence on bleaching performance.