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Peer-reviewedCC BYChemical science

Strain-dependent wetting of graphene.

  • Darren Wayne Lim1,2
  • Xavier R Advincula3,1,2
  • William C Witt4
  • Angelos Michaelides3,2
  • Fabian L Thiemann1,5
  • Christoph Schran1,2
5 affiliations
  1. 1Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge Cambridge, CB3 0HE UK [email protected].
  2. 2Lennard-Jones Centre, University of Cambridge Trinity Ln Cambridge CB2 1TN UK.
  3. 3Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road Cambridge CB2 1EW UK.
  4. 4Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University Cambridge MA USA.
  5. 5Microsoft Research AI for Science Cambridge CB1 2FB UK.
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Abstract

Understanding how water wets graphene is critical for predicting and controlling its behaviour in nanofluidic, sensing, and energy applications. A key measure of wetting is the contact angle made by a liquid droplet against the surface, yet experimental measurements for graphene span a wide range, with no consensus for free-standing graphene. Here, we use a machine learning potential with ab initio accuracy to provide an atomistic first-principles prediction for this unsolved problem, finding a weakly hydrophilic contact angle of 72.1 ± 1.5°. More importantly, we unveil that graphene's wetting properties are highly sensitive to mechanical strain: tensile strain makes graphene significantly less hydrophilic, while compressive strain induces coherent ripples around the droplet, resulting in pronounced anisotropic wetting and contact angle hysteresis. We show that there is a strong coupling between the three-phase contact line and the intrinsic thermal ripples of free-standing graphene, which contributes to this strain sensitivity. Our results demonstrate that the wettability of 2D membranes is governed not only by their chemistry but also by their dynamic morphology, introducing a new class of wetting behaviour unique to atomically thin materials that offers an additional explanation for variability in experimental measurements. These findings reveal that mechanical strain may be a practical route to controlling wetting in 2D nanomaterials-based technologies, with promising consequences for nanofluidic and nano-filtration applications.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{lim2026straindependent,
  title = {{Strain-dependent wetting of graphene.}},
  author = {Darren Wayne Lim and Xavier R Advincula and William C Witt and Angelos Michaelides and Fabian L Thiemann and Christoph Schran},
  journal = {Chemical science},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1039/d6sc05377g},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42953457},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Strain-dependent wetting of graphene.
AU  - Darren Wayne Lim
AU  - Xavier R Advincula
AU  - William C Witt
AU  - Angelos Michaelides
AU  - Fabian L Thiemann
AU  - Christoph Schran
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/20
JO  - Chemical science
DO  - 10.1039/d6sc05377g
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42953457
AB  - Understanding how water wets graphene is critical for predicting and controlling its behaviour in nanofluidic, sensing, and energy applications. A key measure of wetting is the contact angle made by a liquid droplet against the surface, yet experimental measurements for graphene span a wide range, with no consensus for free-standing graphene. Here, we use a machine learning potential with ab initio accuracy to provide an atomistic first-principles prediction for this unsolved problem, finding a weakly hydrophilic contact angle of 72.1 ± 1.5°. More importantly, we unveil that graphene's wetting properties are highly sensitive to mechanical strain: tensile strain makes graphene significantly less hydrophilic, while compressive strain induces coherent ripples around the droplet, resulting in pronounced anisotropic wetting and contact angle hysteresis. We show that there is a strong coupling between the three-phase contact line and the intrinsic thermal ripples of free-standing graphene, which contributes to this strain sensitivity. Our results demonstrate that the wettability of 2D membranes is governed not only by their chemistry but also by their dynamic morphology, introducing a new class of wetting behaviour unique to atomically thin materials that offers an additional explanation for variability in experimental measurements. These findings reveal that mechanical strain may be a practical route to controlling wetting in 2D nanomaterials-based technologies, with promising consequences for nanofluidic and nano-filtration applications.
SN  - 2041-6520
SN  - 2041-6539
ER  -