A comparative study of superhydrophobicity of 0D/1D/2D thermally functionalized carbon nanomaterials

Abstract Superhydrophobic coatings promise various practical applications. A one-step, ingenious yet economical thermal curing method is devised to render the carbon nanomaterials superhydrophobic. This study aims to compare the degree of superhydrophobicity of the carbon/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) synthesized from the 2D graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs), 1D multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), and 0D carbon black (CB) nanomaterials. The superhydrophobic GNPs/PDMS, MWCNTs/PDMS and CB/PDMS are synthesized when thermally functionalized with the siloxane groups. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy data signifies the successful functionalization of the carbon nanostructures by siloxane chains and the Raman spectroscopy analyses indicate that GNPs/PDMS manifests the highest degree of structural defects due to functionalization. The degree of superhydrophobicity induced on the carbon/PDMS coatings correlates with the dimensions of the carbon nanomaterials (0D, 1D and 2D), which is intimately associated with the effective surface areas of the nanomaterials susceptible of chemical functionalization. The promising applications of the superhydrophobic coatings are demonstrated. This study proposes a novel wettability tuning method and provides insightful analyses and characterization of the superhydrophobicity of the thermally functionalized carbon nanomaterials with different dimensions of varied nano-geometries.