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Influence of atmospheric helium plasma on the surface energy of jute fibres and the performance of resulting composites

journal contribution
posted on 2012-01-01, 00:00 authored by Abdullah Al Kafi, Kevin Magniez, C Cinquemani, Bronwyn Fox
In this work, an atmospheric pressure glow discharge helium plasma treatment was employed to modify the surface properties of jute fibres. The resulting bio-composites showed an increase in flexural properties and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) compared to composites produced using untreated jute fibres. To understand the reason behind the ILSS improvement, the acid–base properties of jute fibres were determined by contact angle analysis using the capillary rise method. The results were fitted further to van Oss–Chaudhury–Good (vOCG) and Chang–Qin–Chen (CQC) models to determine the Lifshitz–van der Waals (LW) and acid–base components of surface energy. Surface energy determined by the vOCG model revealed that plasma treatment of jute fibre resulted in a 22% increase in total surface energy, a 19% increase in the LW component and a 24% increase in the acid–base component of surface energy. The increase in the acid–base component is due to the significant increase (69%) in the electron-accepting (γ+S) parameter. On the other hand, the CQC model clearly indicates an amphoteric nature of the fibre surface based on opposite signs of the acid and base principal values (PSa and PSb). Overall, the results indicated that increases in both LW and acid–base components were responsible for improvement in the properties of the composites.

History

Journal

Journal of adhesion science and technology

Volume

26

Issue

1-2

Pagination

151 - 162

Publisher

VSP

Location

Utrecht, The Netherlands

ISSN

0169-4243

eISSN

1568-5616

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2012, Koninklijke Brill NV