Abstract— The Present work was to investigate the possibilities of breaking down the sub-micron fibrillar structure to fabricate submicron of Jute nanofibres by high energy ball milling. The particle size distributions of the jute fibres were obtained to determine the variations occurring in the particle size and size span when ball milling was applied. Nano fibres of jute fibre were characterized by using XRD analysis at different time periods at 10hrs, 20hrs, 40hrs, 60hrs and 80hrs of milling by varying ball diameters in steps and speeds of the range from 100 to 200 rpm. The fibre size in diameter is decreased by the longest milling time investigated. The faster milling speed led to smaller particles, with wider size distribution while the size was hardly effected. The utilization of smaller ball diameter resulted in slightly smaller particles only after longer milling time, with narrow size distributions. Fourier Transformation Infra red spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis showed that the lignin and hemicelluloses was removed for NoaH treated jute fibres. The XRD analysis that the particle size distribution reduced from micro to 20-50 nm. SEM observations revealed that the nano particles of jute fibre were exhibited spherical and elliptical shape.

Index Terms— Jute fibre, Cellulose, Chemical treatment, Ball milling, Characterization, Micro and nanofibres

Cite: KTB Padal, K Ramji, and VVS Prasad, " Isolation and Characterization of Jute Nano Fibres," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 422-428, April 2014.