Ozone/UV Collaborative Treatment on the Colour Fading of Dyed Cotton

Ozone (O-3) has been used to fade dyed textiles to achieve worn style because of its eco-friendly characteristic. Ozone/UV collaborative decolourisation on wastewater is a hot topic as UV irradiation was regarded as a catalyst in the treatment. In this study, the ozone/UV collaborative treatment on colour fading reactive dyed cotton was investigated in comparison with conventional fading processes of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and chlorine (NaC1O) in terms of the effect on colour fading, mechanical properties (the tensile strength and elongation, tearing strength and abrasion resistance) and surface microstructure in SEM. UV clearly illustrated that the ozone fading effect on dyed cotton and the decolourisation efficiency of it is much better than conventional treatments with less negative impact on all of the mechanical property related items above. Overall, it possessed an excellent potential to alternate the conventional processes as it not only performs better in the evaluations but is also capable to save a huge amount of water and power.