New research at Vanderbilt University, United States, may lead to windshields that shed water so effectively that wipers will become obsolete, or ship hulls so slippery that they glide through water more efficiently than ordinary hulls. James Dickerson, an assistant professor of physics, and his colleagues have figured out how to create a freestanding film of graphene oxide and alter its surface roughness so that it either causes water to bead up and run off, or causes it to spread out in a thin layer. “Graphene films are transparent and, because they are made of carbon, they are very inexpensive to make,” Dickerson said. “The technique that we use can be rapidly scaled up to produce it in commercial quantities.” The Vanderbilt team is pursuing an approach that could create a film of graphene oxide that can, depending on how the particles are assembled, either spread water out, or cause it to bead up and run off. Potential applications include self-cleaning glasses and clothes, anti-fogging surfaces, corrosion protection and snow-load protection on buildings. The article can be viewed online at the link below.
http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2011/02/tuning-graphene-film-so-it-sheds-water/