The hydrophilic character of aluminum oxide surfaces may be altered through coating such surfaces with carboxylic acids. The initially hydrophilic nature of the solid substrate changes towards a less hydrophilic character as the bulk concentration and the chain length of the acids increases. The acids employed in this work (propionic, valeric and enanthic) show a certain affinity to the liquid-gas, solid-liquid and solid-gas interfaces, being the relative adsorption on them competitive. The adsorption behavior of these carboxylic acids is experimentally investigated combining pendant drop tensiometry, contact angle measurements on alpha-Al2O3 polycrystalline ceramics and adsorption on particles in aqueous suspensions, as a function of the hydrocarbon chain length of the acids and their bulk concentration, at pH equal to the acids' pKa. The hydrophilic character of the coated alumina decreases with the acids concentration upon a certain concentration beyond that, it increases. The minimum of hydrophilicity is reached right before hi-layer arrangements on the adsorption pattern of the acids on the solid substrates take place. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.