Studies on Loss-tangent of Argon and Oxygen Plasmas Treated Jute

Md. Anisuzzaman Rassel, Md. Masroor Anwer

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 two non polymerizing gases, namely argon (Ar) and oxygen (O2) 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. Dielectric loss quantifies a dielectric materials inherent dissipation of electromagnetic energy properties of both raw and low temperature Ar and O2 plasma treated jute were studied at various discharge power levels and exposure times. The dependence of the tanδ with frequency at different treatment times and discharge powers for all the jute samples show small relaxation peaks at the very low frequency region. The values of tanδ decrease with the increases of both plasma treatment times and discharge powers. Also, the relaxation peaks shifted to the higher frequency region as the plasma treatment times as well as discharge power increases. At low frequencies relaxation peaks indicates the possibility for the interfacial polarization.