Fiber-Content Measurement of Wool-Cashmere Blends Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.

Area of Science:

• Textile Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Spectroscopy

Background:

• Cashmere is a luxury protein fiber, significantly more expensive than wool.
• Textile industry often blends cashmere with wool to reduce costs.
• Accurate identification of fiber content is crucial for quality control and product classification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a reliable near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy method for estimating cashmere content in wool-cashmere blends.
• To address the challenge of cashmere adulteration in textile products.

Main Methods:

• Preparation of cashmere-wool blends at 11 different ratios using whole fibers and fiber snippets.
• Collection of NIR spectra for all prepared samples.
• Identification of characteristic wavelength bands with differential absorbance between cashmere and wool.
• Application of chemometric analysis using multilinear regression (MLR) models to predict cashmere content.

Main Results:

• Six characteristic NIR wavelength bands were identified where cashmere and wool showed significantly different absorbance.
• MLR models accurately predicted cashmere content (CC) in blends, consistent with prepared ratios.
• Prediction errors for CC could be limited to 0.5% with testing at ≥25 locations.

Conclusions:

• The developed MLR models based on NIR spectroscopy are reliable and accurate for estimating cashmere content in wool-cashmere blends.
• This method shows significant potential for practical application in detecting cashmere adulteration in the textile industry.