About the surface characteristics of natural fibres

Abstract

The surface characteristics of corona and silane treated jute fibres were studied using dynamic contact angle (DCA), capillary rise and resin adsorption methods as well as inverse gas chromatography (IGC). First of all it was shown that corona treatment increases the polarity of jute fibres, whereas the dispersive part was constant over the whole range of corona energy output. This was leading to an improvement in the wettability of the fibres by a polar epoxy resin. The fibre surface energy was dependent on corona energy output used with a maximum in polarity by 130 mJ/mm2. Further it was shown that the contact angles on the jute fibres for the different test liquids depend on the contact time due to the absorption of test liquid. Because of this fact, an improved method to characterise cellulose based fibre surfaces was developed based on DCA and capillary rise method. For the silane treated fibres increased specific interaction terms were characteristic.