ABSTRACT

Moisture and Finish-on-Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been found to be a useful technique to characterize raw materials and finished textile products, and NIR methods and techniques continue to find increasingly diverse and wide-ranging quantitative and qualitative applications in the textile industry. Quantitative analyses determine the amount (or quantity) of the property/species of interest in a substance or material. Qualitative analyses can be used to either identify a specific species or substance present in a material (i.e., coating on a fiber), the type of material itself (i.e., cotton, nylon, or polyester), or the quality of the material. NIR quantitative and qualitative methods allow the user to rapidly, accurately, and precisely monitor key chemical, physical, and morphological properties of textile fibers, yarns, fabrics, and chemical textile auxiliaries. Chemical properties are specific chemical species or groups present in the material (i.e., CH, OH, NH) that result in NIR spectral absorbencies at distinctive

DBURNS: “7393_c025” — 2007/7/27 — 17:14 — page 486 — #2

or physical properties (i.e., turbidity, light scattering) that result in changes or movement in NIR spectral absorbencies. Morphological changes are changes in the material’s molecular structure or fiber’s morphology (i.e., hydrogen bonding, crystalline state, and structure) that result in changes in NIR spectral absorbencies.