New graphene-based foams are excellent water repellents

Researchers from the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have shown that graphene can be used to create a superhydrophobic coating material that shows stable superhydrophobicity under both static as well as dynamic (droplet impact) conditions.

The researchers grew graphene over a nickel foam template which was then leeched away. The remaining graphene foam (layered graphene sheets) was coated with a Teflon layer. They say that the pore size and structure of the graphene foam can be uniformly tuned by selecting the appropriate nickel foam template.

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Posted: Sep 05,2012 by Ron Mertens