14 - Identification of natural textile fibres

Abstract

There are a wide range of textile fibres with very similar appearance and feel. It is a difficult task to uniquely identify these fibres from their visual appearance. Proper identification is essential for the fashion and textile industries, design houses and forensic science. The identification methods, however common across disparate industries, are conducted very differently in each. There have been several developments in the fibre identification using instruments such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, confocal microcopy, gas chromatography and the mass spectroscopy. However, the traditional methods are prevalent in the industries as they are the cheapest alternative. This chapter discusses various techniques used to distinguish among natural textile fibres through their physical and chemical structure; various properties and microscopic appearance. The recent developments in fibre identification techniques have also been discussed including some of the important research work for qualitative and quantitative identification of natural textile fibres. A special attention has been given to the identification of textile fibres for forensic science where the fibre samples are very limited or even to identify a single fibre.