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- Decolorization of coloured materials. The two
- main types of bleaching agent are the
- oxidizing bleaches, which add oxygen and
- remove hydrogen, and include the ultraviolet
- rays in sunshine, hydrogen peroxide, and
- chlorine in household bleaches, and the
- reducing bleaches, which add hydrogen or
- remove oxygen, for example sulphur dioxide.
- Bleaching processes have been known from
- antiquity, mainly those acting through
- sunlight. Both natural and synthetic pigments
- usually possess highly complex molecules, the
- colour property often being due only to a
- part of the molecule. Bleaches usually attack
- only that small part, giving another
- substance similar in chemical structure but
- colourless.
-