Surface microstructure of carbon black: Advances in characterization by scanning tunneling microscopy

The recent advances in the characterization of the surface structure of carbon black by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) are reported. The atomic organization, at the surfaces of several carbon blacks, is well resolved by STM and a local paracrystalline structure model is proposed, where the distorted carbon layer and thus the unequal inter-layer distance are evidenced on the basis of the classical turbostratic stacking. The quantitative analysis of the STM image, which enables a quantitative assessment of the surface crystallinity and of the nanoscale roughness, is presented.