Surface free energy of synthetic chalcocite from zeta potential and contact angle techniques

Abstract —The zeta potentials of synthetic chalcocite wetted with n-alkanes were determined in doubly-distilled water. Then the relationship between the coverage of the chalcocite surface with n-heptane or n-hexanol and the zeta potential in water was found. Using an empirical relation, the film pressure of n-heptane and n-hexane was determined. Next the dispersive and polar components of the surface free energy were calculated. The value of the dispersive component was also determined by contact angle measurements. The values obtained were 81.0 and 22.7 mJ/m2, for the dispersive and the polar components of the surface free energy, respectively. Keywords: Chalcocitezeta potentialssurface free energy