Characterization of glow plasma treatment on silica nanofillers under different treatment durations

Abstract

Silica nanofiller or nanosilica is known to be one of the most widely used fillers in polymer nanocomposite. Nevertheless, agglomeration of nanosilica within polymer matrix has been discovered to be a limitation towards enhancing the insulating properties. With this regard, plasma discharge is found to have a great potential in overcoming the agglomeration of nanofiller despite using chemical solvents or coupling agents. The effectiveness of plasma treatment in functionalizing the nanofiller is influenced by few factors, including treatment duration. However, the optimum treatment duration is still yet to be explored to determine its effect on the morphology characteristic of nanofiller. Therefore, this study investigates the effect of plasma treatment duration on nanosilica by varying the treatment times to 1, 3, and 5 minutes. The glow mechanism of plasma discharge is produced by exhilarating the plasma reactor with 0.5 kV and 20 kHz of source parameters. The characteristics of plasma discharge are analyzed according to the discharge current and the properties of the Q-V Lissajous figure. In comparison, the morphology of nanosilica is characterized by using a Perkin Elmer FTIR spectrometer. The result showed that the plasma treatment duration is proportional to the intensity of the hydroxyl group functionalized on the nanosilica morphology with the highest intensity at 5 minutes of treatment time.