Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Beijing Graphene Institute, Beijing 100095, P. R. China.
Nano Lett. 2021 Nov 24;21(22):9587-9593. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03344. Epub 2021 Nov 4.
The wettability of graphene is critical for numerous applications but is very sensitive to its surface cleanness. Herein, by clarifying the impact of intrinsic contamination, i.e., amorphous carbon, which is formed on the graphene surface during the high-temperature chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, the hydrophilic nature of clean graphene grown on single-crystal Cu(111) substrate was confirmed by both experimental and theoretical studies, with an average water contact angle of ∼23°. Furthermore, the wettability of as-transferred graphene was proven to be highly dependent on its intrinsic cleanness, because of which the hydrophilic, clean graphene exhibited improved performance when utilized for cell culture and cryoelectron microscopy imaging. This work not only validates the intrinsic hydrophilic nature of graphene but also provides a new insight in developing advanced bioapplications using CVD-grown clean graphene films.
石墨烯的润湿性对许多应用至关重要，但对其表面清洁度非常敏感。在此，通过澄清在高温化学气相沉积（CVD）过程中在石墨烯表面形成的本征杂质（即非晶碳）的影响，通过实验和理论研究证实了在单晶 Cu(111) 衬底上生长的清洁石墨烯的亲水性，其平均水接触角约为 23°。此外，转移后的石墨烯的润湿性被证明高度依赖于其本征清洁度，因此，当用于细胞培养和冷冻电镜成像时，亲水、清洁的石墨烯表现出了改善的性能。这项工作不仅验证了石墨烯的固有亲水性，而且为使用 CVD 生长的清洁石墨烯薄膜开发先进的生物应用提供了新的见解。
