Cotton fabric bleached with seawater: mechanical and coloristic properties

The textile industry needs a high volume of water to carry out its processes, which among them; textile chemical finishing is the main responsible for high water expenditure. However, nowadays there is a worldwide concern regarding the scarcity of fresh water. This research aims to study the use of seawater in the cotton bleaching process and compare the results obtained with the bleaching process made with distilled water. The characterization of the substrates was performed through the following analyses: reflectance spectrophotometry, white degree (deg Berger), wettability, tensile strength, elongation, scanning electron microscopy and dispersive energy spectroscopy. The bleaching with seawater presented good whiteness index, high tensile strength values and excellent hydrophilicity, which suggest that it may be possible to perform this process in cotton fabric using seawater. (author)