Investigation of the usage of ozone in denim finishing processes

Nowadays, too much water, energy, chemical substances are consumed for the conventional textile finishing processes and more chemicals are exposed to the environmental load. In our world of diminishing resources, the most ideal way of using the available resources has been inevitable in the name of all living things on earth. In order to alleviate the environmental burden and increase the green production understanding, the textile finishing sector continues to work as in other sectors. The chemicals used in the studies are minimized to be preferred environmentally friendly substances. Enzymes used in textile finishing, ultrasound technology and use of ozone as oxidizing agents can be seen as the successful results of these studies [1-4]. In this study, processes that can reduce the environmental load in denim finishing processes were investigated with ozone gas used in many fields in recent years. Denim fabrics were treated with ozone and compared with other conventional denim finishing methods. In this study, which is performed in order to improve the bleaching process with ozone, it is envisaged to reduce the chemicals and water used in conventional denim finishing. The operations were carried out on a total of 20 pants, which were sizing and desized pants. In addition, preliminary trials were carried out at acidic, basic and neutral pHs to examine the effect of pH change on the ozone bleaching process. In accordance with the results of previous studies, it was decided to make the best humidity rate of 60%. Ozone concentration was chosen as 100 g/m3 and 200 g/m3. In addition to these, ozone application time was determined as 20 minutes. Weight loss, tear strength and color measurement analysis of the fabrics were performed before and after the ozone processes.