Abstract: This study was designed to establish the method of characterization of surface free energy(SFE)and evaluate the compaction properties of pharmaceutical materials based on SFE. We investigated the contact angles of materials with water and diiodomethane under different compression pressures. The contact angles of materials at 353 MPa compression pressure were utilized to calculate the related parameters of SFE ultimately. The area under tensile strength-compression pressure curve(AUTSC)and pressure yield(Py)were employed to evaluate the compactibility of material. Additionally, Pearson correlation analysis was utilized to analyze the relationship between the SFE and the compaction properties of pharmaceutical materials. The results exhibited that SFE had a significant correlation with the compaction properties of materials(P < 0.05). Moreover, the related parameters of SFE, i.e., cohesive work(W_co)and polarity index(PI)of SFE, were positively correlated with Py of Heckel equation and negatively related with AUTSC. The higher values of W_co and PI, the stronger repulsive force among the particles, led to a worse compaction behavior. In this study, we established the method for characterization of the compaction behavior of materials based on SFE initially. This study also demonstrated that SFE could evaluate the compaction behavior effectively, which provides a better understanding of compaction behavior for pharmaceutical researchers.