Abstract: An activated peroxide system is formed by adding bleach activator to an aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide, from which peracid is generated as a more kinetically active bleaching agent and allows cotton fibers to be bleached under milder conditions. N-[4-(triethylammoniomethyl)benzoyl]lactam chlorides (TBLC) are a novel series of bleach activators which play the role of low-temperature bleaching under nearneutral conditions. In this paper, the bleaching mechanism of the TBLC-activated peroxide system was highlighted, based on which a new bleaching process was proposed for low-temperature bleaching of cotton fibers. This paper also provided new insights into the future development of low-temperature bleaching of cotton fibers.

Key words: cotton fibers; bleaching; hydrogen peroxide; bleach activator