Wetting Properties of Hemp Fibres Modified by Plasma Treatment

Abstract
The influence of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) on the physico-chemical properties of hemp fibres was studied in this paper. Plasma-modification of hemp fibres was performed at atmospheric pressure. The source of the DBD was developed in the Quantum Optics Laboratory of the Faculty of Physics in Belgrade as a device prototype with plane-parallel geometry, for the continuous plasma-modification or treatment of textile materials. The capillary rise method was applied to evaluate the improvement in water uptake of the DBD treated hemp fibres. The plasmamodified hemp fibres have highly improved wetting properties without changing physico-mechanical properties (tensile strength and elongation).