Patent ID: 6875734

Claim:
A method for increasing the oxidation and bleaching action of a peroxygen compound comprising the step of mixing the peroxygen compound with a transition metal complex having nitrogen-containing ligands, wherein the transition metal complex has the formula (1) M(L) n X m (1) where M is a metal atom selected from the group consisting of Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Mo, and W, L is a ligand selected from the group consisting of pyridine, imidazole, picoline, imidazoline, pyrrole, pyrazole, triazole, hexamethylenimine, piperidine, lutidine, and mixtures thereof, X is chloride, bromide, nitrate, perchlorate, sulfate, ammonia, tetrafluoroborate, hexafluorophosphate or an anion of an organic acid having 1 to 22 carbon atoms, n is a number from 2 to 4 and m is a number from 0 to 4.