Water Protects Graphitic Surface from Airborne Hydrocarbon Contamination

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• 作者：Zhiting Li ; Andrew Kozbial ; Nikoloz Nioradze ; David Parobek ; Ganesh Jagadeesh Shenoy ; Muhammad Salim ; Shigeru Amemiya ; Lei Li ; Haitao Liu
• 刊名：ACS Nano
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：January 26, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：10
• 期：1
• 页码：349-359
• 全文大小：482K
• ISSN：1936-086X

文摘

The intrinsic wettability of graphitic materials, such as graphene and graphite, can be readily obscured by airborne hydrocarbon within 5–20 min of ambient air exposure. We report a convenient method to effectively preserve a freshly prepared graphitic surface simply through a water treatment technique. This approach significantly inhibits the hydrocarbon adsorption rate by a factor of ca. 20×, thus maintaining the intrinsic wetting behavior for many hours upon air exposure. Follow-up characterization shows that a nanometer-thick ice-like water forms on the graphitic surface, which remains stabilized at room temperature for at least 2–3 h and thus significantly decreases the adsorption of airborne hydrocarbon on the graphitic surface. This method has potential implications in minimizing hydrocarbon contamination during manufacturing, characterization, processing, and storage of graphene/graphite-based devices. As an example, we show that a water-treated graphite electrode maintains a high level of electrochemical activity in air for up to 1 day.