ANALYTICAL POTENTIAL OF RAMAN-SPECTROSCOPY IN WOOL TEXTILE RESEARCH

The authors are interested to see whether Raman spectroscopy might be helpful in the studies on the mechanism of the photoprotective action of light stabilizers, particularly UV absorbers, in wool. A number of studies have explored the mode of action in wool of UV absorbers based on the 2-hydroxyphenylbenzotriazole structure. In common with all ortho-hydroxy aromatic UV absorbers, these compounds rely for their effectiveness on the integrity of the intramolecular hydrogen bond between the hydroxyl group and the heteroatom in the central ring system. When UV absorbers are incorporated into wool as photoprotecive agents, hydrogen bonding interactions between the absorber molecules and the polar side chains in the fiber tend to disrupt the intramolecular hydrogen bond and in so doing significantly diminish the photoprotective effectiveness of the absorber. An important feature of the Raman technique, particularly when examining protein fibers such as wool, is the minimal interference due to the relatively weak scattering by the substrate or by adsorbed water.