When colour fades from fabric and other printed materials, where does it go?
In: Chemistry
Nowhere, color isn’t a material, it’s just a propriety of how done materials reflect light, if those materials change in some way, be it chemically (like with bleach) or by exposure to ultraviolet light, they reflect light different and the colors fade
There are a few mechanisms at play here.
One is saturation of the colorant or, how much of the colored stuff is left behind after wear. Clothing, for instance, can fade because because the dyes in the fabric or pigments in the inks printed on the fabric are worn or washed away.
Another is degradation of the colorant itself. Things look a certain color because of the wavelengths of light they absorb/reflect and that absorbtion/reflection is determined at the molecular level. If the makeup of the colorant are changed, they will absorb/reflect light differently and will therefore appear a different color.
Another is contamination. Similar to degradation, the colorant can be contaminated by the substrate or other colorants, shifting the color.
A lot of it is washed down the drain of your washing machine. Some may be transferred to other fabrics it was washed with. In some cases, the pigment is simply bleached by exposure to solar radiation.
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