Issue 4, 2013

Controlled water adhesion and electrowetting of conducting hydrophobic graphene/carbon nanotubes composite films on engineering materials

Abstract

Based on the microbumps of graphene nanosheets and the nanostructure of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), novel graphene/CNTs composite films with hierarchical micro- and nanoscale surface roughness were successfully fabricated by simply spraying the mixed acetone dispersion of graphene nanosheets and CNTs onto stainless steel substrates. The as-prepared composite films exhibited controlled surface hydrophobic, adhesive and electrowetting properties via altering the film surface structure and surface energy. Among them the composite film with a 1 : 5 mass ratio of graphene to CNTs showed high hydrophobicity and conductivity, low water adhesion and contact angle sensitivity to the external electric field, which would help to resolve the surface electrostatic problems and unstable hydrophobicity under applied potential that exist in many conventional insulating hydrophobic materials, and could be useful in some application fields.

Graphical abstract: Controlled water adhesion and electrowetting of conducting hydrophobic graphene/carbon nanotubes composite films on engineering materials

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
17 Sep 2012
Accepted
09 Nov 2012
First published
12 Nov 2012

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013,1, 1254-1260

Controlled water adhesion and electrowetting of conducting hydrophobic graphene/carbon nanotubes composite films on engineering materials

J. Pu, S. Wan, Z. Lu, G. Zhang, L. Wang, X. Zhang and Q. Xue, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013, 1, 1254 DOI: 10.1039/C2TA00344A

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