A dataset of infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectra for textile fibres of natural and man-made origin

This dataset contains attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectra of natural and man-made textile fibres assembled to support research in forensic, analytical, and environmental science. The dataset was developed under the hypothesis that textile fibres exhibit characteristic and reproducible infrared signatures that enable differentiation between fibre classes. By capturing a broad representation of commonly encountered textile materials, the dataset provides a reference framework for fibre identification, spectral comparison, and the development and evaluation of classification approaches.

A total of 160 spectra were obtained from 137 verified textile samples sourced from industry reference collections and academic textile archives. Only pure (non-blended) fibres were included. Samples were provided as fibre tufts, yarns, or fabric swatches, and natural variation in manufacturing treatments was retained to reflect the diversity typically encountered in real-world materials. The dataset currently covers 26 fibre subtypes, spanning both natural and man-made categories.

The data are organised into six components: raw instrument files, tabular matrices of raw transmission spectra, baseline-corrected spectra, averaged spectra grouped by fibre subtype, three alternative fully pre-processed feature matrices prepared using different spectral preprocessing pipelines, and a metadata file describing sample-level attributes. These datasets allow users to explore spectral variability within and between fibre categories, build custom reference libraries, benchmark spectral matching algorithms, examine discriminating spectral regions, and train or evaluate chemometric or machine-learning models using a consistent, well-structured foundation.