Characterization of textile fibers by means of EGA-MS and Py-GC/MS

Textile fibers have represented an important resource for mankind throughout all human history. In fact, ancient cultures employed them not just to produce clothes, but also for expressing their habits and traditions. Based on the chemical composition, textile fibers are classified as natural, artificial, and synthetic. The analysis of textile fibers can be very challenging, so it is crucial to find new analytical tools capable of identifying them and studying their behavior in the environment. The collected information can be transferred in many different fields, such as the industrial sector, forensic science, environmental science, and heritage science. In the present study, the capability of Pyrolysis coupled to Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), and Evolved Gas Analysis coupled to Mass Spectrometry (EGA-MS) to discriminate textile fibers was tested. The first part of the study was addressed to the analysis of pure samples to build a detailed database by highlighting the main differences in the chromatographic profiles. Then, three textile blends of known composition were investigated, and the results compared with those acquired by Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Eventually, the information obtained from the reference materials was exploited for the study of textile samples collected from the stage costumes of the lyrical opera ‘I Puritani’ directed by Franco Zeffirelli in 1961. The EGA-MS and Py-GC/MS results, integrated with those obtained by optical microscopy, allowed us to deepen the characterization of the historical samples. •Evolved Gas Analysis coupled to Mass Spectrometry was tested to discriminate textile fibers.•Pyrolysis - Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry was tested to discriminate textile fibers.•A database for natural, artificial, and synthetic fibers was built up, including mixtures.•The performances of the method were compared with results obtained by ATR-FTIR•The method was applied to characterize samples collected from the stage costumes from 1961.