Wetting and Interfacial Properties of Water on the Defective Graphene

Abstract

The wettability of defective graphene and its relation with the interfacial property of water have not been well tackled. By conducting molecular dynamics simulations on the interactions between water and graphene with some vacancy defects, we show that the contact angle is more sensitive to the Stone–Wales (SW) and single-vacancy (SV) defects than the double-vacancy (DV) defects. Density profiles indicate that the graphene sheet induces the interfacial water to change from a liquid into an ordered three-layer structure, which restricts the self-diffusion of water molecules seriously. Moreover, the effect of defects on the ordered liquid layer has also been discussed. Our results are helpful for controlling the wettability of graphene and developing the applications of graphene in nanodevices