The optical brighteners OB, also known as fluorescent whitening agent (FWA), fluorescent brightening agent (FBA), or optical brightening agent (OBA), is a kind of fluorescent dye or white dye, which is widely used for the whitening and brightening of plastics, paints, coatings, inks, etc.
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The working principle of optical brighteners is to absorb the invisible UV light and remit the visible blue light to offset the yellow of the substance.
Specific of optical brighteners OB
The features of our optical brighteners OB in painting and coatings.
1. Easy to dissolve in common organic solvents at room temperature. (Xylene, toluene, methanol, acetone, etc)
2. Easy to use, just add them with other colorants or additives during production and stir evenly.
3. Good transparency and weather resistance. it will improve the transparency of transparent paints and it’s blue light will add brilliance to all colors.
4. Low dosage. 200 grams in 1tons of paint can add 10 whiteness values. 5. Our OB has passed the Rohs test and SVHC screening report by SGS, which is an environment-friendly material for paints and coatings.
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Optical brighteners are often referred to as fluorescent whitening agents. Essentially, they are large molecules composed of (excuse my Science) phenyl and heterocyclic groups with conjugated double bonds. Most optical brighteners used in consumer products such as laundry detergents are with stilbene derivatives (1) or biphenyl derivatives (2). Fun fact: Stilbene means “glittering” in Greek.
Before these fluorescent molecules were invented in the s, blue dyes were used in laundry detergents and textiles to add a little bit of blue hue to help offset the “yellowing” of white clothes and linens due to aging and staining. But those blue dyes only make laundry visually appear whiter, not brighter. The fluorescent optical brighteners work differently by absorbing invisible UV light and turn it into visible lights in blue color. Once deposited on laundry fibers, those fluorescent molecules make clothes and sheets appear to be both whiter and brighter by hiding the yellowing hue away from our visual detections. Optical brighteners have gained huge popularity in applications for laundry detergents, textiles, cosmetics, paper, and hair care products over the years. Nowadays, millions of pounds of optical brighteners are used and discharged as wastewater into our ecosystems every year.
There are more than 400 optical brighteners that have been made in history. Due to performance, health and environmental concerns, less than 50 of them are still in mass production for commercial uses. Those remaining have much more acceptable safety profiles in terms of their toxicity to the environment and human health. However, they remain as concerned chemicals in commercial applications such as laundry detergents for the following reasons:
Once discharged as wastewater, those optical brighteners escape from water treatment plants and get released into open or underground water. They biodegrade slowly and may end up accumulating in marine lives. Some optical brighteners are acutely harmful for aquatic organisms.
Under natural lighting, those optical brightener molecules slowly go through a photodegradation (the alteration of materials by light) process and break down to smaller pieces as metabolites. The data from a few research reports suggests that potential estrogen disruption and reproductive toxicity concerns from certain stilbene derivatives and their metabolites need to be further investigated.
The functionality of optical brighteners has NOTHING to do with laundry cleaning.
They are designed to dissolve in water and then absorb onto laundry fibers during the washing cycle. Resisting to be rinsed off, they stay on fibers in order to create an optical illusion to make clothes and linens appear whiter and brighter. Once absorbed and accumulated onto laundry fibers after rinsing and drying, those optical brighteners and related metabolites are in direct contact with our skin and may cause harm for some people with sensitive skin.
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