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/m2.