Unravelling the role of microwave absorber in color stripping of a dyed natural polymeric material with microwave assisted method

Chemical stripping adversely affects the quality of cotton fabric due to prolonged exposure to harsh chemicals. High temperatures also affect the surface and tearing characteristics of recycled cotton. Microwave-assisted stripping is a viable approach to addressing these problems, requiring less time, energy, and chemical consumption. Furthermore, utilizing a microwave-absorbing molecule that assisted the heat generation, multiple treatment methods were applied to remove the dye reactive turquoise CLB from cotton fabric. In the reductive process, pretreatment with sodium citrate as a microwave absorber showed 94.8% stripping efficiency, while in the meta-treatment, stripping efficiency was 96.2%. In the conventional stripping procedure, 75.7% stripping efficiency was observed, much lower than microwave absorber stripping with an absorber. Moreover, FTIR analysis of treated and untreated fabrics confirmed the removal of Reactive Turquoise CLB from the cellulosic structure. The quality assurance parameters, weight loss, and tearing strength assure the performance of developed methods by showing higher tearing strength and negligible weight loss compared to conventional methods.