Publication: Comparative analysis of burial degradation of textile fibres in different soil moisture contents using atr-ftir spectroscopy
Loading...
Date
2026-02
Authors
Min, Chan Hui
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Textile materials are commonly encountered as evidence in forensic investigations involving assault, homicide, sexual offences, and clandestine burials. However, limited research has focused on the short-term burial of textiles for estimating time since burial. The effects of different soil moisture contents on textile degradation also remain largely unexplored. This study investigated the comparative burial degradation of textile fibres under different soil moisture contents over a six-week burial period. Three textile types were examined, including natural fibres (cotton and silk) and a synthetic fibre (polyester). The textiles were buried in soils with the moisture contents were adjusted to 0%, 20%, 40%, and 60% water holding capacity (WHC). Samples were collected weekly and analysed using stereomicroscopy and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy to evaluate morphological changes and chemical alterations, respectively. Multivariate statistical techniques, including principal component analysis-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) and partial least squares regression-discriminant analysis (PLSR-DA) were applied to the spectral data to assess degradation trends and to model to model the estimation of time since burial. Morphological observations revealed that cotton exhibited the most pronounced degradation, followed by silk and polyester showed the greater and comparable resistance to burial conditions. ATR-FTIR analysis combined with PCA showed clear separation of samples according to their types with classifications rate of 99.8%. The PLSR models further showed that burial time could be predicted with reasonable accuracy with R2 values ranging from 0.93 to 0.98 based on the spectral data.
Description
Keywords
-