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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Structure and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #249598
Title: Preliminary studies of cotton non-lint content identification by near-infrared spectroscopy

Author
item Fortier, Chanel
item Rodgers Iii, James
item Santiago Cintron, Michael
item Cui, Xiaoliang
item Foulk, Jonn

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/8/2010
Publication Date: 4/28/2010
Citation: Fortier, C.A., Rodgers III, J.E., Santiago Cintron, M., Cui, X., Foulk, J.A. 2010. Preliminary studies of cotton non-lint content identification by near-infrared spectroscopy. Proceeding of the 2010 National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference, January 5-7, 2010, New Orleans, Louisiana. p. 1369-1373. 2010 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary: Cotton is the primary natural textile produced globally. During the processing of cotton, cotton lint can become comingled with foreign matter. Thus, increasing interest is growing to study cotton contamination. Conventional methods to analyze cotton trash such as the High Volume Instrument and the Shirley Analyze lack specificity in determining the type of cotton trash components present with the lint. Thus, it would be advantageous to develop a universal method to classify the individual components of cotton trash. The current study will determine the feasibility of employing Fourier-Transform Near-Infrared spectroscopy to identify specific cotton trash components commonly found present with cotton lint.

Technical Abstract: The high demand for cotton production worldwide has presented a need for its standardized classification. There currently exists trained classers and instrumentation to distinguish key cotton quality parameters, such as some trash types and content. However, it is of interest to develop a universal instrumental method with higher trash identification specificity. A program was implemented to determine the capabilities of Near-Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to identify various forms of cotton trash, including hull, leaf, seed coat, and stem. A NIR bench-top instrument was used to analyze small cotton trash samples. Subtle spectral differences between the cotton trash samples were used to classify the non-lint material components. The current method is beneficial due to the ease of use, short analysis time, and non-destruction of sample.