Morphology Structures and Properties of Animal Hairs

Geometrical morphology and chemical constitution of hairs of man and 14 animals, i.e., marten, fox, goat, mouse, rabbit, cat, dog, roe deer, ox, donkey, badger, bear, pig and horse, were examined by scanning microanalyzer, energy analyzer and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry. These hairs were divided into 4 classes which were called finger shape, sprout-shape, wave-shape and scale-shape, respectively, in the light of hair surface morphology characteristics. Animal hair surfaces display geometrical unsmoothed and rough structures with various patterns and sizes. The heat preservation, hydrophobic behaviour and flexibility of the samples were compared with each other. The finger-shape structure morphology of hairs has more obvious superiority than other 3 classes in heat preservation, hydrophobic behaviour and flexibility. The information plays an important role in studying and developing new-type bionics materials.