Dichroism measurements in forensic fibre examination: Part 1 — Dyed polyester fibres

One hundred and twenty dyed polyester samples were examined with plane polarized light on their dichroic behaviour by optical light microscopy (OLM) and microspectrophotometry in the visible range (MSP Vis). It was found that most of these disperse dyed polyester fibres possess a strong dichroism, which fall into two broad categories. Either a decrease of intensity (hypochromic effect) or a change of hue (hypsochromic or bathochromic shift of absorption bands) is noted. These dichroic effects are related to the orientation of the dye structure with respect to the polymer chains.