Optical Brightners
Optical brighteners convert ultraviolet (UV) light waves to strengthen blue light and minimize the amount of yellow light to make the things appear whiter. So they do not get your clothes any cleaner, but make them appear whiter and brighter. What they do is stay on your clothes as they can withstand heat and even chemicals like bleach. You can detect optical brighteners using a special ultraviolet or black light and which will help you notice that your clothes glow.
Application:
Optical Brighteners are commonly added to laundry detergents to make the clothes look cleaner. Usually cleaned laundry looks yellowish, which consumers do not like. Optical brighteners have replaced bluing which was previously used to produce the same effect. Brighteners are used in many papers, especially high brightness papers, resulting in their strongly fluorescent appearance under UltraViolet illumination. Paper brightness is generally measured at 457 nm, well within the fluorescent activity range of brighteners. Paper used for banknotes do not contain optical brighteners, so a common method for detecting counterfeit notes is to check for fluorescence.
