Switchable hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of a HOPG surface - Comment on the paper by Y. Wei and C.Q. Jia, Carbon, 87 (2015) 10-17. (May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Włoch, Jerzy; Terzyk, Artur P.; Kowalczyk, Piotr; Korczeniewski, Emil D.; Kaneko, Katsumi
• Is Part Of: Carbon. Volume 115(2017)
• Page Start: 571
• Page End: 573
• Publication Date: 2017-05
• Subjects: Carbon -- Periodicals; Carbone -- Périodiques; Koolstof; Toepassingen; Electronic journals; 546.681
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2017.01.048
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-6223

Abstract

Abstract: Based on simulation data we show that the edge graphite atoms of a HOPG surface have remarkable influence on water contact angle values. Compared to graphite basal plane, a water droplet sitting on the edge atoms experiences two effects on wettability, smaller density of surface carbon atoms and the appearance of the Wenzel states. The differences between contact angles recorded for samples containing different amounts of the edge atoms are large, even after carbon surface oxidation. Thus, we report anisotropic wettability of the graphite surface. Moreover, changing the content of edge atoms in the substrate, one can induce switchable hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties of graphite. Graphical abstract: