Preparation of superhydrophobic laser-induced graphene using taro leaf structure as templates

Abstract Wettability of graphene is important for researching, modulating the wettability at the same time as producing deserve more attention. In this work, a fast, convenient and low-cost preparation method was introduced to produce superhydrophobic graphene with a biomimetics surface structure that was inspired from taro leaves. First, the surface structure of the taro leaf was obtained by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Then a regular structure imitating a taro leaf was designed. Subsequently, a graphene layer with biomimetic surface structure similar to the taro leaf was induced on the surface of polyimide film by Nd:YAG laser. The morphology of the graphene surface was adjusted by the scanning speed and laser fluence during laser processing under the contribution of the photothermal effect. Under the optimal processing parameters for wettability, wetting tests with the water, sweat and serum droplets showed that the graphene with biomimetic surface has superhydrophobicity, anti-sweat and serum adhesion properties with the same contact angle and sliding angle of 153° and 3.3°, respectively. This optimized biomimetics laser-induced graphene can be used to protect exposed graphene-based devices from liquid erosion.