SURFACE ROUGHNESS OF ELECTROSPUN NANOFIBROUS MATS BY A NOVEL IMAGE PROCESSING TECHNIQUE

Abstract

A novel technique based on image processing inspired by the simple assumption for the first time to assess the roughness of nanofibrous mats based on grayscale variations is proposed. The height of a nanofibrous mat in different regions of the surface is simulated by grayscale variations in the image while the relation between grayscale and height is obtained as a linear function. The roughness is obtained by measuring height variations in the surface profile. Statistical roughness parameters of nanofibrous mats are also obtained from direct measurement with roughness profilometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for comparison of the roughness of nanofibrous mats between direct measurement and proposed method. The AFM is the most suitable surface measuring instrument for roughness measurement on the nanofibrous mat. So that, in this study the relation between the obtained statistical roughness parameters and the AFM result follows a low coefficient of expansion. Therefore, the two methods give results in satisfactorily close agreement. This proposed method not only exhibits all mentioned advantages, but has also been very simple, accurate, and useful for surface roughness prediction in nanofibrous mats.