Influence of the structure of carbon black on its electrical conductivity and adsorption properties

Carbon black (CB) is widely used in the creation of various electronic devices due to its electrical conductivity and adsorption properties. The microstructure of electrically conductive CB samples was studied using transmission electron microscopy, multi-wavelength Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction in this work. The relationship between the main characteristics of the structure of carbonaceous materials and electrical conductivity and adsorption properties was established. Using transmission electron microscopy, it was shown that the high values of sigma and SBET of CB samples are due to the presence of hollow particles and changes in the organization of graphene layers. It was found that the parameter R, experimentally determined by X-ray diffraction, characterizing the fraction of carbon atoms of graphene sheets present as single layers, reliably correlates with the electrical conductivity sigma of the studied carbonaceous materials. It was also found that the position of the D4 band, in the Raman spectra obtained with an excitation laser wavelength (lambda) of 780 nm, correlates with both the electrical conductivity sigma and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface area (SBET) of the studied CB samples. Additionally, it was found that the intensity (area) of the D3 band obtained by mathematical decomposition of the Raman spectra recorded for the CB samples with lambda = 532 nm is also interrelated with both the electrical conductivity sigma and the SBET values. The obtained physicochemical dependencies are explained by the different structure of the graphene sheets and the additional polyene-like structures present in CB.