Abstract: A process for the continuous pretreatment of cellulosic textile material comprisesa) a precleaning step wherein the treatment bath used comprises customary surfactants and other customary auxiliaries with or without customary enzymes as desizing agents and has a pH of from 5 to 11, and, after washoff and rinse,b) a bleaching step with hydrogen peroxide in an alkaline-aqueous liquor which comprises customary surfactants and other customary auxiliaries,wherefor the treatment bath of (a) additionally comprises from 1 to 10% by weight, based on the weight of the textile material,(i) either of an aminopolycarboxylic acid, of a hydroxyalkyl- or amino-phosphonic acid, of a polycarboxylic acid, of a polyhydroxycarboxylic acid or of an inorganic polymetaphosphate, or a mixture thereof, as complexing agent for polyvalent metal ions, or(ii) of a water-soluble polymer derived from 40 to 100% by weight of monoethylenically unsaturated mono- or dicarboxylic acids or anhydrides, or a mixture thereof, and has a K value of fr

Abstract: Cotton and cotton-containing fabrics are desized in strongly alkaline aqueous solution with an alkali metal hypochlorite by a process in which from 0.5 to 8.0 g/l of a tertiary hydroxyalkylamine which is soluble in aqueous alkaline solution, of an oxyethylated and/or oxypropylated ethylenediamine, of an oxyethylated polyethyleneimine, of malonic acid, of cyanuric acid, of a cyanuric acid derivative, of a urea derivative, of cyanoguanidine, of oxazolidone, of pyrrolidone, of N-methylpyrrolidone, of N-methylimidazole or of a mixture of these is added to the aqueous bath, as an activator for the hypochlorite. Activators for hypochlorite are used in the desizing of cotton and cotton-containing fabrics in strongly alkaline aqueous solutions.

Abstract: Water-containing peroxydisulfate suspensions containing potassium peroxydisulfate, a water-soluble polymer or copolymer of acrylic acid and/or maleic acid, with or without an anionic surfactant, where appropriate mixed with a non-ionic surfactant, and water, in which the aqueous phase contains from 12 to 65% by weight of not less than one other dissolved compound which keeps the system at a pH of not less than 5 and is a source of potassium ions.

Abstract: In addition to the very time-consuming enzymatic and hydrolytic desizing processes, oxidative degradation of starch size by means of persulfate, to render the starch water-soluble, is conventionally practised. Because of the chemical similarity between starch and cellulose, oxidative degradation of the cellulose is unavoidable in this desizing process. The invention overcomes this problem by breaking up the macromolecules of the starch into dispersible fragments by means of such small amounts of persulfate that neither is the starch made water-soluble nor is the cellulose significantly damaged, the dispersants employed for the fragments being relatively oxidation-stable polymers of unsaturated carboxylic acids.