Identification of fibres, particularly in blends, requires knowledge of their characteristics. Individual Identifying features between wool and mohair fibres were investigated in this study using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared-Attenuated Total Reflection (FTIR-ATR), Fourier Transform Raman and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). This study confirmed that wool and mohair can be differentiated and identified in blends using the cuticle scale height (CSH) criterion, wool having an average CSH of 0.6 ± 0.1 μm and mohair having an average CSH of 0.4 ± 0.1 μm. The AFM provided highly reproducible CSH results, which also confirmed the SEM results that indeed wool and mohair could be differentiated using the CSH as criterion. The AFM gave a CSH value of 0.9 ± 0.2 μm for wool and 0.6 ± 0.2 μm for mohair, the difference between the two results being statistically significant according to the student t-test. It has been demonstrated that wool and mohair identification in blends is possible, by using the AFM to measure CSH, although the method is very time consuming and might be expensive. The FTIR-ATR showed similar spectra for wool and mohair fibres, confirming that the two fibre types consist of the same polymer material. Nevertheless, a difference was observed in the ratios of the relative intensities of the amide I (around 1630 cm-1) to the amide II (around 1515cm-1) absorption bands. The FT Raman provided similar spectra for the wool and mohair fibres, although a possible distinguishing feature between the two fibres could be the intensities of the alkyl side chains chemical band near 2940 cm-1 in the spectra of the two fibre types. According to the results obtained in this study, the FTIR-ATR and the FT Raman techniques may have potential for differentiating between wool and mohair but this requires further investigation.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.