Abstract:
Raman spectroscopy was investigated to determine the optimal conditions, mainly laser wavelength/s, for the analysis of the
commonly encountered black/grey and blue cotton fibres dyed with reactive dyes. In this first part, a single blue cotton fibre, its
three dye components, and an undyed cotton fibre were analysed with five different laser wavelengths from two different Raman
microprobe spectrometers. The quality of the spectra, fibre degradation and speed of acquisition were used to determine that,
under the conditions used, the 785 and 830 nm lasers gave superior results. The 632.8 nm laser wavelengths provided good
results with little acquisition time and no spectral degradation. Results indicate that, at least, the major dye component could be
identified using Raman spectroscopy.
