Textile fibers microscopy studies

Examination. Specific questions arising in the study of textiles include the identification of the textile fiber. Microscopy is the most important approach. 

Natural and synthetic textile fibers were among the earliest materials studied by electron microscopy. Guthrie [1] and Stoves [2] described the techniques and applications of fiber microscopy to industrial practice. Somewhat later, evidence was provided for an oriented microfibrillar texture in polymer fibers [3]. X-ray diffraction suggested an arrangement of fine structures about 50 nm long and 5 nm wide in semicrystalline fibers [4, 5]. Peterlin [6, 7] observed the formation of fibrils and microfibrils by the deformation and transformation of spheru-lites using various nucroscopy techniques. 

Techniques of optical microscopy (OM) are well known and often used for the examination of fibers and yams from archaeological textiles. Many texts provide the fundamentals of the technique (e.g. 40-43). Some manuscripts describe the methods that may be employed in the study of archaeological materials in particular (44, 45), while others report the results of optical microscopic examination in identification and characterization of archaeological fibers (e.g., 12, 46). 

Studying the Cause and Type of Fiber Damage in Textile Materials by Scanning Electron Microscopy... 

Pseudomorphs on a bronze Shang Dynasty halberd (ca. 1300 b.c.) were subjected to mineralogical analysis to determine their structure and composition. X-Ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive analysis of x-rays were used in these analyses. Photomicrographs of pseudomorphs also were studied for fiber, yam, and fabric formations that give evidence of textiles. A model describing the process of silk pseudomorph formation was proposed. 

A El Acharl, A Ghenaim, V Wolfe, C Caze, E Carlier. Topographic study of glass fibers by atomic force microscopy. Textile Res J 66 483-490, 1996. 

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