Abstract
Jute fabric was treated for various periods of time under atmospheric plasma glow discharge (APGD) using helium (He), helium/nitrogen (He/N), and helium/acetylene (He/Ac) gases. It was found that, for all gases studied, 10 s of treatment was enough to significantly improve the wetting behaviour of the fabric. Different levels of improvement of up to 55%, 62%, and 40% in flexural strength, flexural modulus, and interlaminar shear stress respectively were observed in composites produced from plasma treated fabrics. The storage modulus and glass transition temperature were also improved by up to 200% and 16 °C, respectively. Efforts were made in order to correlate the changes in surface roughness, tip-surface adhesion, and surface chemistry of the fibres (measured by XPS and FTIR) with the performance of the composites. In light of some of the trends, it has been postulated that low-molecular weight oxidised species have formed on the fibre surface during plasma and that the chemical nature of these species must have changed considerably depending on the type of gas mixture used, inducing various synergistic or antagonistic effects.
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