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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 50(6)

Measuring colour and photostability of small fleece wool samples

K. R. Millington A B and A. L. King A
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- Author Affiliations

A CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, PO Box 21, Belmont, Vic. 3216, Australia.

B Corresponding author. Email: keith.millington@csiro.au

Animal Production Science 50(6) 589-592 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN10001
Submitted: 4 January 2010  Accepted: 23 March 2010   Published: 11 June 2010

Abstract

A convenient method for measuring the clean colour (Y and Y-Z) and photostability Δ(Y-Z) of small samples of fleece wool (0.5 g) is described. Scoured wool samples are compressed to a constant density in disposable polymethyl methacrylate spectrophotometer cells and the wool colour is measured using a standard textile laboratory reflectance spectrophotometer. Packing scoured wool into cells ensures that the irradiated fibre surface is robust and individual fibres are unable to move relative to one another during irradiation and measurement. A UVB (280–320 nm) source was used to ensure all samples regardless of initial yellowness were yellowed following exposure and photobleaching was avoided. An apparatus capable of irradiating up to 48 scoured wool samples in one batch is described. The precision of photostability measurements was assessed and the relative error in Δ(Y-Z) was 5.7%. An initial study on 75 fleece wool samples with a high range of initial yellowness showed a moderate linear correlation (R2 = 0.68) between initial yellowness and Δ(Y-Z).


Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Trevor Mahar and Henry Wang (AWTA) for useful discussions on photostability testing, Michelina Del Giudice and Mike Jones for technical assistance and Jeff Baum, Tony Gargett, Chris Pickersgill and Ian Redknap for design and construction of the UVB irradiator. We are grateful to the CRC for Sheep Industry Innovation for providing financial support.


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