Scanning Electron Microscopy Analysis of Argon Plasma Treated Jute Fibre

Md. Masroor Anwer, Md. Abdullah Kayser, Shuranjan Sarkar, S M Mahruf Hossain, Sharmin Akter, Tahnin Bintay Kamal, Fatema Nusrat Jahan

Low temperature plasma (LTP) treatment, a kind of environmentally friendly surface modification technique, was applied to biodegradable and ligno-cellulosic jute fibre with the use of nonpolymerizing argon (Ar) gas at various discharge power levels of 50, 75 and 100 W and exposure times 5, 10, 15 and 20 min. with a flow rate of 0.2 L/min. By means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the influence of treatment time and discharge power on the surface morphology of the surface of LTP treated jute were studied and were compared with that of raw jute. SEM microphotographs reveal that the roughness of the fibre surfaces increases with the increase of discharge power and exposure time. This is caused due to the bombardment of high energetic ions on the fibre surface and the fibres become sputtered.