The Preparation of the Lyophilic Zinc Powder and its Physicochemical Properties

Abstract

Lyophilic zinc powder has been prepared by subjecting zinc powder to reaction with n-butanol under high temperature and high pressure. By the microanalysis of the surface-treated zinc powder, by observation through electron microscope, and by dissolution of the zinc-rich paint film into dil. HCl, adsorption of argon at 77°K, and also by the fact that, though the surface-treated samples cannot be suspended into water, they can into organic solvent, it is found that only the surface properties of the powder are made lyophilic, causing no change to any fundamental properties of the powder, e. g. the surface area, pore structure or any chemical properties. This surface-treatment of zinc powder is understood as esterification of the acidic group of the surface oxide of zinc powder with n-butanol. The zinc-rich paint of the surface-treated zinc powder is found better dispersed in the vehicle than that of untreated native zinc powder. On the contrary, the dry film of the paint prepared from the surface-treated zinc powder proves more easily breakable than that prepared from the untreated native kind.