The Jean Lab
In this lab, we asked what the best solution of bleach and water was to fade jeans during a 10 minute time period, and there couldn’t be any visual damage to the denim. We have found that 50% bleach seems to be the best possible mixture. The 25% concentration was not very faded, so we decided it wasn’t effective enough. The 100% concentration faded the jeans to almost white, but the damage was roughly 8.5/10. We decided that there was too much damage to the jeans with the 100% bleach, so we settled on 50%. The 50% solution roughly had 5.5/10 damage. Even though 5.5 sounds like a big number, we believe that the denim is still extremely strong. We couldn’t tear/destroy the denim with our hands; however, we do not know how long-term durability will be compromised. It is widely known online, and possibly in textbooks, that bleach takes all the color out of clothing. Many stain removers actually contain a small amount of bleach to help remove the stain. Many companies bleach their jeans for that “used” appearance; however, they probably use less bleach over a long period of time. This data supports our claim because if they used a higher concentration, then the jeans would be more of a whitish color instead of blueish.
While our hypothesis was supported by our data, there could have been errors due to time. We did two batches, and one batch was left for longer. Our results might have been slightly affected because the average fade might be a little greater. This would be good be for our results though because there might be slightly less overall damage. I recommend that you are very precise with time because bleach works extremely fast on clothing. Also, make sure to prepare all the measurements before putting the denim inside the bleach solution.
This lab was done to demonstrate the effects of different concentrations of bleach on denim. This lab also helped us test the scientific method, and also work on performing an experiment. I have learned how useful the scientific method is when performing an experiment. I have also learned how difficult it is to find the perfect concentration of bleach to fade jeans. From this lab I have learned how to organize data, and how to use the scientific method. Based on my experience from this lab, I believe performing labs will be much more efficient. I also believe that this helped me understand how to deal with chemicals safely, even though bleach isn’t a very dangerous chemical.
Concentration ( % Bleach )
|
Average Color Removal
|
Average Fabric Damage
|
100
|
9.5
|
8.5
|
50
|
5
|
5.5
|
25
|
3.5
|
3.5
|
12.5
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
