Contact angle of ethanol, water, and their mixtures on stainless steel surfaces in dense carbon dioxide

Hypothesis Contact angle can be a key parameter in chemical engineering. However, the development and the optimization of numerous processes using supercritical CO2, considered as environmentally friendly, requires new measurements under dense CO2 atmosphere. Besides, the influence of the roughness or the wetting regime on the contact angle is known at ambient conditions but remains to be discussed for systems under high pressure. Experimental Contact angle measurements of ethanol, water, and their mixtures, with ethanol mass fractions ranging from 0.25 to 0.75, on two stainless steels in saturated CO2 at pressures ranging from 0.1 MPa to 15.1 MPa, and at 313 K and 333 K were carried out in a set-up improving mass transfer between the studied liquid and the continuous fluid phase. Stainless steel surfaces have been characterized by atomic force and scanning electron microscopies allowing the application of the Wenzel equation. Findings Ethanol wetted totally both stainless steels while contact angles of all other liquids were increased by the rise of pressure, with contact angles up to 128 ° for water at 15.1 MPa. Trapped bubbles were observed at the solid/liquid interface and the bubble formation is discussed. Furthermore, the potential influence of bubble presence on the wetting regime is prospected through the question: could the pressure rise modify the wetting regime?

Aymeric Fabien, Guillaume Lefebvre, Elisabeth Badens, Brice Calvignac, Damien Chaudanson, et al.. Contact angle of ethanol, water, and their mixtures on stainless steel surfaces in dense carbon dioxide. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2024, 655, pp.535-545. ⟨10.1016/j.jcis.2023.10.163⟩. ⟨hal-04316090⟩

Journal: Journal of Colloid and Interface Science

Date de publication: 01-02-2024

Auteurs:
  • Aymeric Fabien
  • Guillaume Lefebvre
  • Elisabeth Badens
  • Brice Calvignac
  • Damien Chaudanson
  • Alain Ranguis
  • Christelle Crampon

Digital object identifier (doi): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2023.10.163


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