An eco-friendly microwave assisted recycling of cellulosic fabric dyed with reactive red CL4BN and reactive black PLS

The study was aimed to retain the quality of recycled cotton fabric by microwave-assisted color stripping of faulty dyed cotton and waste of garments industry. Microwave assisted method reduces the chemical consumption and coverts stripping time from hours to seconds. Additionally, this is an eco-friendly approach as it also reduces the chemical wastes into environment due to much less usage of chemicals in this process compare to conventional stripping methods. Cotton fabric dyed with Reactive Red CL4BN and Reactive Black PLS dye was subjected to acid and alkali hydrolysis followed by reductive and oxidative stripping in a sequential manner. The sequential stripping resulted in up to 97-98 % stripping efficiency. The tear strength of microwave-assisted acid hydrolysed sequentially stripped fabric increased by 17.7 % and 24.1 % in warp and weft wise directions respectively for Reactive Red CL4BN while for Reactive Black PLS which is increased by 14.5 % and 29.3 % in warp and weft-wise direction respectively. The microwave-assisted alkali hydrolysed sequentially stripped fabric was found to be better in terms of tear strength and weight loss as compared to its respective conventional method. Additionally, using Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, the color stripping was successfully investigated and validated through variations in cellulose and dye structures.