KCS

Carbon black is one of main ingredients of various products such as tires, ink, paint, and printer toners. It is known that the size and the size distribution of the carbon black play an important role in its applicability’s in those various products. When used in inks, the smaller the particle size, better the carbon black particles are dispersed, and tend to become glossier. Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AsFlFFF) has been shown applicable for separation and characterization of various types of polymers and colloidal particles. Also the dynamic light scattering (DLS) is widely used to determine the size distributions of various organic and inorganic particles. In this study, carbon black particles obtained from various sources were analyzed by AsFlFFF. They were first dispersed in aqueous media containing various types of the dispersant (cationic, anionic, and nonionic surfactant). For AsFlFFF, various experimental parameters including the injection flow rate, cross flow rate, channel flow rate, focusing time, and ionic strength were optimized for better elution of the carbon black particles. The size distributions determined by AsFlFFF were in good agreements with those obtained from DLS. Also the relationship between the size (and size distribution) of the carbon black particles and the glossiness was investigated, when used as an ink.