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Wetting translucency of graphene

Nature Materials volume 12, pages 866–869 (2013)Cite this article

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For the case of water on supported graphene, about 30% of the van der Waals interactions between the water and the substrate are transmitted through the one-atom-thick layer.

Despite the fact that vast research efforts have revealed a great deal of the unique electronic, optical and mechanical properties of graphene1,2,3, a simple yet unanswered question is whether atoms or molecules located on one side of the lattice experience electrostatic or van der Waals (vdW) interactions exerted by atoms or molecules on the other side. In other words, although it is well known that graphene is 98% transparent to visible light1, fundamental understanding of graphene's degree of transparency to chemical, vdW and electrostatic interactions is lacking. Research on the wetting properties of graphene has been used as a first step towards quantifying its role in the transmission of such interactions, as the interfacial energies involved directly determine the macroscopic contact angle, θ, of a liquid droplet on a graphene-coated substrate4. Progress made in this area will also benefit the development of graphene-based membranes and microfluidic devices that utilize the ultimate thinness of graphene as an ideal surface material5,6,7,8.

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Figure 1: Shape of a water droplet on graphitic surfaces.
Figure 2: Practical strategy for increasing the contact angle of water on a graphene-coated superhydrophobic substrate.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Raj, G. Rutledge and J. Kong for useful discussions. This work has been supported by ONR-MURI, NSF and MIT ISN.

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  1. Michael S. Strano and Daniel Blankschtein are at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Chih-Jen Shih, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA,

    Chih-Jen Shih, Michael S. Strano & Daniel Blankschtein

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Shih, CJ., Strano, M. & Blankschtein, D. Wetting translucency of graphene. Nature Mater 12, 866–869 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3760

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