Alternating current electrical properties of Argon plasma treated jute

• Main Authors: Md. Masroor Anwer, A.H. Bhuiyan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Society for Development and Sustainability (ISDS) 2012-09-01
• Series: International Journal of Development and Sustainability
• Subjects: Jute; Plasma treatment; Dielectric constant; Conductivity; Loss-tangent
• Online Access: http://isdsnet.com/ijds-v1n2-40.pdf
• ISSN: 2186-8662; 2186-8662

Low temperature plasma (LTP) treatment, a kind of environment friendly surface modification technique, was applied to biodegradable and environment friendly jute fibre with the use of nonpolymerizing gas, namely argon, at various discharge power levels and exposure times with a definite flow rate. Scanning electron microscopy (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. The capacitance and the electrical conductance of raw and LTP treated jute fibre were measured as a function of frequency at room temperature. The dielectric constant, conductivity, dielectric loss-tangent and the surface morphology of raw and LTP treated jute as a function of frequency were studied at room temperature. It was observed that for all the samples the dielectric constant almost constant at lower frequencies and then decreases gradually in the high frequency region. In addition, dielectric constant increases with the increase of plasma treatment time as well as discharge power. It is also observed for all the samples that the conductivity increases as the frequency increases with a lower slope in the low frequency region and with a higher slope in the higher frequency region. In addition, the conductivity decreases with the increase of plasma exposure time as well as discharge power. The conductivity increases with frequency due to the hopping mechanism of electrons. The dependence of the dielectric loss-tangent with frequency at different treatment times and discharge powers for all the jute samples show small relaxation peaks in the very low frequency region. The dielectric loss-tangent decreases with the increase of both plasma treatment time and discharge power. In addition, the relaxation peaks are shifted to the higher frequency region as the plasma treatment time as well as discharge power increases. At the low frequencies relaxation peaks indicate the possibility of interfacial polarization.