Liquid adsorption behavior and surface properties of carbon blacks

The liquid adsorption and surface properties of two carbon blacks (CBs), one was as-received and one was oven-dried, were studied by the capillary rise method. Taking these two CBs to adsorb two polar liquids, water and formamide, and two non-polar liquids, hexane and diiodomethane, respectively, we found that both CBs, especially the oven-dried CB, has a higher adsorption for non-polar liquid and a smaller one for the polar liquids. According to furthermore deduced surface free energy data, we further found that both CBs, especially the oven-dried CB, are stronger in the Lewis acid and weaker in the Lewis base, and the total surface free energies are contributed by the Lifshitz-van der Waals interaction component, especially for oven-dried CB up to about 90%. For oven-dried CB, its surface free energy was found lower at about 20-21 mJ/m(2). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.