II International Symposium on Carbon for Catalysis ABSTRACTS

PP-I-48
ON THE WETTABILITY OF PLATELET CARBON NANOFIBER BY WICKING
KINETIC MEASUREMENT
Zhou J., Sui Z., Li P., Chen D. 1 , Dai Y., Yuan W.
UNILAB State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University
of Science & Technology, Shanghai, 200237, P. R. China
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Sem Slands vei 4, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
e-mail: jhzhou@ecust.edu.cn
Carbon supported catalysts are widely used in industry. The surface and wetting
properties of carbon material are vital in catalyst preparation and applications[1]. Moreover,
the amphoteric property of carbon should be tuned to a specific reaction.
In recent years, carbon nanofiber (CNF), one of the novel carbon materials, has been used
as a potential catalyst support for various types of catalytic reactions. In some cases, CNFs are
more competitive than activated carbon owing to their unique characteristics [2]. Recently,
Ros et al found that fishbone carbon nanofibers oxided by HNO 3 /H 2 SO 4 had good affinity
with water [3]. However, to the best author’s knowledge, no systematic study of the
wettability of platelet CNF has been reported so far. The present work focuses on the effect of
surface modifications of the CNF on their wettability in different solvents, in order to better
understand the catalyst preparation and reaction processes.
The platelet carbon nanofiber was synthesized by the CCVD method in our laboratory
where carbon monoxide (CO) was decomposed on ultrafine iron powders under optimized
conditions. The wettability of platelet surface was studied by means of wicking kinetic
measurement using a Contact Angle Surface-Tension Instrument (Thermo Cahn Radian
Series 3000). A capillary flow technique was successfully applied to characterize the
interaction between the CNFs and various solvents [4]. Effects of CNF surface modification
on its wettability as well as the wettability of platelet CNF toward various solvents were
investigated systematically.
The measured relative wetting contact angles (RWCA) in cyclohexane, acetone, alcohol
and water in table 1 showed that the interactions between the CNF surface and the solvent
depended very much on the polarity of the solvents. If the contact angle between the assynthesized
platelet CNF cyclohexane is 0°, then its RWCAs in water, acetone and alcohol
are 81.6, 45.2 and 24.8°, respectively. It is believed that the small polarity of the CNF surface
led to better wettability in non-polar solvents such as cyclohexane than in polar solvents such
as water.
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