Graphene and graphene oxide on Ir(111) are transparent to wetting but not to icing

TY - JOUR

T1 - Graphene and graphene oxide on Ir(111) are transparent to wetting but not to icing

AU - Kyrkjebø, Signe

AU - Cassidy, Andrew

AU - Akhtar, Naureen

AU - Balog, Richard

AU - Scheffler, Martha

AU - Hornekær, Liv

AU - Holst, Bodil

AU - Flatabø, Ranveig

N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge financial support from The European Research Council (CoG GRANN grant no. 648551 ). R.F is funded by Norwegian Research Council’s FORNY programme’s commercialisation project (project number 295961 ). We thank Zheshen Lee and the ISA team at ASTRID2, DK for help collecting high resolution x-ray photoelectron spectrosopcy data. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s) Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/4

Y1 - 2021/4

N2 - Anti-icing coatings reduce the freezing onset temperature for water by changing the chemical and physical environment at the water-substrate interface to prevent ice nucleation and growth. Graphene oxide has several attributes that make it attractive as an anti-icing coating and it has been theoretically predicted that graphene oxide has a lower freezing onset temperature than pristine graphene. Here, we test this hypothesis using carefully prepared, well-characterized graphene oxide substrates. We compare the water contact angle for graphene and graphene oxide coatings, both prepared on iridium(111) surfaces. The results show both materials to be transparent to wetting, but indicate a lower freezing onset temperature for graphene oxide than for pristine graphene. The measured water contact angles are dominated by the properties of the underlying Ir(111) substrate while the freezing onset temperature is dictated by the functional groups present on the graphene basal plane. We suggest that the lowering of the freezing onset temperature is caused by the formation of a viscous water layer on the surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data are used to evaluate the robustness of the coating material and suggest ways to improve the long-term performance, namely by advancing strategies to avoid water intercalation.

AB - Anti-icing coatings reduce the freezing onset temperature for water by changing the chemical and physical environment at the water-substrate interface to prevent ice nucleation and growth. Graphene oxide has several attributes that make it attractive as an anti-icing coating and it has been theoretically predicted that graphene oxide has a lower freezing onset temperature than pristine graphene. Here, we test this hypothesis using carefully prepared, well-characterized graphene oxide substrates. We compare the water contact angle for graphene and graphene oxide coatings, both prepared on iridium(111) surfaces. The results show both materials to be transparent to wetting, but indicate a lower freezing onset temperature for graphene oxide than for pristine graphene. The measured water contact angles are dominated by the properties of the underlying Ir(111) substrate while the freezing onset temperature is dictated by the functional groups present on the graphene basal plane. We suggest that the lowering of the freezing onset temperature is caused by the formation of a viscous water layer on the surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data are used to evaluate the robustness of the coating material and suggest ways to improve the long-term performance, namely by advancing strategies to avoid water intercalation.

KW - Anti-icing coating

KW - Graphene

KW - Graphene oxide

KW - Icephobicity

KW - Iridium

KW - Wettability

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098716850&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.carbon.2020.12.030

DO - 10.1016/j.carbon.2020.12.030

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85098716850

SN - 0008-6223

VL - 174

SP - 396

EP - 403

JO - Carbon

JF - Carbon

ER -