Measuring the Mechanical Properties of Hair (IMAGE)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Measuring the Mechanical Properties of Hair

Caption

NIST researchers used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure the stickiness (pull-off force) and stiffness (plane strain modulus) of hair that was untreated (top), bleached (middle), and conditioned (bottom). The clear differences in the measured results for various hair treatments suggest that AFM might be used to analyze forensic evidence. The measured forces are very small, in units of nanonewtons or nN (1 nanonewton is about the weight of a pollen grain). Modulus is in units of gigapascals or GPa and ranges from 1-5 for the hair samples (for comparison, the plastic lens material polycarbonate measures about 3).

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Delrio/NIST

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