ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Facile fabrication of robust self-cleaning fluorine-free reduced graphene oxide based superhydrophobic surfaces

Madhu Bala and Vickramjeet Singh

Department of Chemistry, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India

E-mail: singhvj@nitj.ac.in

Received: 22 September 2022  Accepted: 31 January 2023

Abstract:

Inspired from nature, superhydrophobic surfaces having selective water repelling properties were facilely fabricated without using any fluorinated chemicals. The sessile water contact angle (CA) ≈ 168° with low contact angle hysteresis (CAH) was achieved on this reduced graphene oxide (rGO) surface. Typically, low surface free energy chemicals are employed to fabricate extreme water repellent surface. Herein, graphene oxide (GO) and rGO were coated by drop casting method. Superhydrophobic surfaces were fabricated by coating rGO on one side of the double-sided adhesive tape. The surface wettability of the GO and rGO surfaces were characterized by drop shape analyzer. The water contact angle increases from 61° on GO coated surface to CA ≈ 168° extreme partial wetting (superhydrophobic) for rGO coatings. The CAH reduces from ~ 27° to less than 5° for rGO coated surface. The adhesion of GO and rGO was also achieved using epoxy resin and the surface wettability was compared. The unique combination of surface chemistry and roughness provided very high CA. The surface was stable against hot water, chemicals (acids, bases, alkali) and mechanical abrasion. On such low CAH surface, the self-cleaning ability was shown by removal of deposited impurity by jet of water drops.

Keywords: Graphene oxide; Reduced graphene oxide; Superhydrophobic; Self-cleaning; Fluorine-free

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-023-02710-w

Chemical Papers 77 (6) 3373–3384 (2023)