Wetting Stability of Supported Graphene in Ambient Environment

The evaluation of the wetting stability of supported graphene in ambient environment is important for its practical applications. Herein, it is shown by experiments that a monolayer graphene coating can alter the water contact angles of various substrates to a converged value around 80–85° in ambient environment, almost independent of substrate materials, graphene layer numbers as well as long-term air exposure up to 14 months. First-principles calculations and van der Waals modeling indicate that a monolayer graphene is sufficient to alter both short-range and long-range interactions of a water molecule with various substrates to a converged state. The stable wettability of graphene would facilitate its practical applications, ranging from functional coatings, liquid gated electronic devices, and other areas requiring its exposure to water.