It is generally accepted that the hydrophilic property of graphene can be affected by the underlying substrate. However, the role of intrinsic vs substrate contributions and the related mechanisms are vividly debated. Here, we show that the intrinsic hydrophilicity of graphene can be intimately connected to the position of its Fermi level, which affects the interaction between graphene and water molecules. The underlying substrate, or dopants, can tune hydrophilicity by modulating the Fermi level of graphene. By shifting the Fermi level of graphene away from its Dirac point, via either chemical or electrical voltage doping, we show enhanced hydrophilicity with experiments and first principle simulations. Increased vapor condensation on graphene, induced by a simple shifting of its Fermi level, exemplifies applications in the area of interfacial transport phenomena.
By introducing the UV beam into our homemade chemical vapor deposition system, we had obtained a well aligned SWNT array on an ST-cut quartz substrate. After transfer onto a SiO(2)/Si substrate, the SWNT array was detected by Raman spectroscopy and electrical measurement, which showed that over 95% of the SWNTs were semiconducting ones. It is proposed that the selection process took place at the very beginning of the SWNT formation rather than destroying the metallic SWNTs after growth. This approach has solved one of the most important problems in SWNT application.
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