- journal_title：Clays and Clay Minerals
- Contributor：Juan de Dios García López-Durán ; Asmae Khaldoun ; Mohamed Larbi Kerkeb ; María del Mar Ramos-Tejada ; Fernando González-Caballero
- Publisher：Clay Minerals Society
- Date：2003-
- Format：text/html
- Language：en
- Identifier：10.1346/CCMN.2003.510108
- journal_abbrev：Clays and Clay Minerals
- issn：0009-8604
- volume：51
- issue：1
- firstpage：65
- section：Articles
The effect of humic acid (HA) adsorption on the hydrophilicity of two different montmorillonite samples (Na-montmorillonite, NaMt, and a Na-fluorinated Na-montmorillonite, FNaMt, or ‘Rassoul’) was investigated. The changes in the wettability of clays were discussed in terms of the non-electrostatic free energy of interaction between the clay particles immersed in aqueous humic acid solutions (ΔG<sub>121sub>), using the van Oss-Chaudhury-Good (vOCG) model. The surface free energy components (both non-polar or Lifshitz-van der Waals, and polar or acid-base) of clays were obtained from contact angle measurements, after adsorption of humic acid, at acid or basic pH, in 10<sup>−2sup> M NaCl solutions. It was found that: (1) at acid pH, a progressive decrease in the hydrophilic character of both clays was observed when the humic acid concentration was increased; (2) at basic pH, the hydrophilic character of both samples studied increased with HA concentration; (3) the effect of humic acid adsorption on the wettability of model edge surfaces of the laminar montmorillonite particles was estimated from a parallel study on silica and alumina surfaces, and only a slight decrease in the hydrophilicity was observed, whatever the pH of the liquid media. The ζ potentials of both clays in the absence and presence of humic acid were determined and the linkage between ζ potential and the electron-donor character of the materials is discussed.