TY - JOUR
T1 - Anion Intercalation into Graphite Drives Surface Wetting
AU - Papaderakis, Athanasios A.
AU - Ejigu, Andinet
AU - Yang, Jing
AU - Elgendy, Amr
AU - Radha, Boya
AU - Keerthi, Ashok
AU - Juel, Anne
AU - Dryfe, Robert A. W.
PY - 2023/4/12
Y1 - 2023/4/12
N2 - The unique layered structure of graphite with its tunable interlayer distance establishes almost ideal conditions for the accommodation of ions into its structure. The smooth and chemically inert nature of the graphite surface also means that it is an ideal substrate for electrowetting. Here, we combine these two unique properties of this material by demonstrating the significant effect of anion intercalation on the electrowetting response of graphitic surfaces in contact with concentrated aqueous and organic electrolytes as well as ionic liquids. The structural changes during intercalation/deintercalation were probed using in situ Raman spectroscopy, and the results were used to provide insights into the influence of intercalation staging on the rate and reversibility of electrowetting. We show, by tuning the size of the intercalant and the stage of intercalation, that a fully reversible electrowetting response can be attained. The approach is extended to the development of biphasic (oil/water) systems that exhibit a fully reproducible electrowetting response with a near-zero voltage threshold and unprecedented contact angle variations of more than 120° within a potential window of less than 2 V.
AB - The unique layered structure of graphite with its tunable interlayer distance establishes almost ideal conditions for the accommodation of ions into its structure. The smooth and chemically inert nature of the graphite surface also means that it is an ideal substrate for electrowetting. Here, we combine these two unique properties of this material by demonstrating the significant effect of anion intercalation on the electrowetting response of graphitic surfaces in contact with concentrated aqueous and organic electrolytes as well as ionic liquids. The structural changes during intercalation/deintercalation were probed using in situ Raman spectroscopy, and the results were used to provide insights into the influence of intercalation staging on the rate and reversibility of electrowetting. We show, by tuning the size of the intercalant and the stage of intercalation, that a fully reversible electrowetting response can be attained. The approach is extended to the development of biphasic (oil/water) systems that exhibit a fully reproducible electrowetting response with a near-zero voltage threshold and unprecedented contact angle variations of more than 120° within a potential window of less than 2 V.
UR - https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c13630
U2 - 10.1021/jacs.2c13630
DO - 10.1021/jacs.2c13630
M3 - Article
C2 - 36977204
SN - 0002-7863
VL - 145
SP - 8007
EP - 8020
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society
IS - 14
ER -