We present a study on the intrinsic water wettability of graphene grown on a copper substrate using chemical vapor deposition. Our result shows that graphene is much more hydrophilic than previously believed.The water wettability of graphene plays a key role in many of its proposed applications, such as DNA sequencing, energy storage, and surface coating. While some studies concluded that the water contact ange of graphene is similar to that of graphite and therefore graphene is 'hydrophobilic', others argue that graphene is 'wetting transparent' in that its wettability is determined by that of the substrate. Our study shows that a single layer graphene grown on a copper substrate using chemical vapor deposition is intrinsically hydrophilic. Using Infrared (IR) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), we demonstrate that the previously reported hydrophobic nature of graphene is entirely due to surface contamination.

On the intrinsic wettability of graphene

246th National Meeting (2013)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.