APPLICATION OF DRIFT SPECTROSCOPY AND CHEMOMETRICS FOR THE COMPARISONOF COTTON FABRICS

Two sets of cotton fabrics-one consisting of different types of fabric and the other of a fabric sampled sequentially during its normal proc essing stages-were investigated by DRIFT spectroscopy. The band assign ments were consistent with previous work but, in general, the spectra could not be differentiated on visual examination. However, they were successfully qualitatively and quantitatively distinguished with the u se of chemometrics; a chemical basis for fabric clustering was also in dicated. This approach is a significant improvement on previously repo rted work with KBr disk IR sampling.