1980 Volume 21 Issue 3 Pages 122-130
White textiles in the market have mostly been finished with fluorescent whitening agents. During usage, these textiles decrese their original whiteness by losing the effect of fluorescent whitening agents. This article aims to investigate the causes of lowering of whiteness and measures to be taken to prevent it.
The cause of lowering of effect of fluorescent whitening agents is found to be mostly the colour fading due to drying in the sun light, removal of fluorescent whitening agents due to laundering and weakening of effect of fluorescent whitening agents due to soils and deposited matters soils on clothes. The degree of lowering are dependent on the amount of fluorescent whitening agents used in detergents and clothes, fastness and affinity of fluorescent whitening agents, conditions of laundering and drying, degree of soils on clothes.
It is difficult for cotton clothes to retain their whiteness if they are dried in the sun light for many hours.
To keep clothes white, it is recommended to dry clothes with a great care, to soak colored clothes in the highly concentrated solution of detergents containing fluorescent whitening agents and to remove soils and deposited matters.
