The Performance of Sodium Hypochlorite and Sodium Hypobromite as Bleaching Agents at Varying Levels of Hydrogen Ion Concentration

Limited information was found in literature survey on the bleaching of wood pulp by means of hypobromites. Experimentation showed that the addition of sodium bromide to sodium hypochlorite results in accelerated bleaching. The optimum pH range for bleaching was found to be higher in presence of hypbromites than in straight hypochlorite bleaching. The maximum brightness values obtained in bleaching with either straight sodium hypobromite or with mixtures of hypochlorite and hypobromites were lower than those obtained with sodium hypochlorite