The application of near infrared spectroscopy for quantitative analysis of cotton-polyester textile was investigated in the present work. A total of 214 cotton-polyester fabric samples, covering the range from 0% to 100% cotton were measured and analyzed. Partial least squares and least-squares support vector machine models with all variables as input data were established. Furthermore, successive projection algorithm was used to select effective wavelengths and establish the successive projection algorithm-least-squares support vector machine models, with the comparison of two other effective wavelength selection methods: loading weights analysis and regression coefficient analysis. The calibration and validation results show that the successive projection algorithm-least-squares support vector machine model outperformed not only the partial least squares and least-squares support vector machine models with all variables as inputs, but also the least-squares support vector machine models with loading weights analysis and regression coefficient analysis effective wavelength selection. The root mean squared error of calibration and root mean squared error of prediction values of the successive projection algorithm-least-squares support vector machine regression model with the optimal performance were 0.77% and 1.17%, respectively. The overall results demonstrated that near infrared spectroscopy combined with least-squares support vector machine and successive projection algorithm could provide a simple, rapid, economical and non-destructive method for determining the composition of cotton-polyester textiles.
