The Relevance of Powder/Liquid Wettability to the Cohesiveness of Carbon Black Agglomerates

Particle size enlargement operations often involve the use of a liquid to improve powder cohesiveness. Capillary suction and surface tension forces acting through liquid menisci between particles are the primary source of the cohesive bonding. The strength of these forces, and consequently the strength of the wet agglomerate, is dependent upon the total liquid content, its distribution within the agglomerate, and the powder wettability (characterized by the liquid surface tension and powder/liquid contact angle). The tensile strength of powder compacts containing submicron carbon black particles has been measured as a function of saturation level for several liquids. It is found that the compact strength increases with increasing surface tension for liquids that exhibit a zero contact angle. Above the critical surface tension for wetting a more complicated situation exists where both the surface tension and contact angle are important.