Abstract: The experiment selected 8 kinds of typical coal sample, six common surfactants, through contact angle test, coal quality analysis, researched the influence of different types of surfactants and coal elemental composition on coal wettability. The results showed that the influence of surface active agent on coal wettability affected by two aspects including coal dust liquid - solid surface tension and solution gas-liquid surface tension. Coal quality has many impact on the wettability, and through industry analysis, elemental analysis we got coal dust formula to characterize the coal wettability.