Fourier Transform Infrared Imaging of Cotton Trash Mixtures

There is much interest in the identification of trash types comingled with cotton lint.  Conventional methods, including the High Volume Instrument (HVI) and the Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS), do not yield specific data on the origin of the cotton trash. Formerly, spectroscopic analysis of cotton trash has been successfully applied to identify pure trash types. It is the goal of this study to determine the feasibility of using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) imaging to identify trash types in the absence and presence of cotton lint.