title: Polymer single crystal-decorated superhydrophobic buckypaper with controlled wetting and conductivity.
abstract: Herein we report fabrication of uniform, free-standing nanohybrid buckypaper with high carbon nanotube (CNT) contents (13-70%) using polymer single crystal-decorated CNTs as the precursor. Polyethylene single crystals were periodically grown on CNT surfaces, forming a nanohybrid shish kebab (NHSK) structure. Vacuum filtering a NHSK suspension led to polymer single crystal-decorated buckypaper (named as NHSK paper) with a wide range of CNT contents and uniform CNT dispersion. Porosity, surface roughness, and conductivity of NHSK paper can be controlled by tuning the polymer single crystal size. Because of the hierarchical roughness created by intra- and inter-NHSK nanostructure, NHSK paper with controlled kebab size exhibits both superhydrophobicity and high surface water adhesion, which mimics the rose petal effect. We anticipate that this unique NHSK paper can find applications in sensors, electrochemical devices, and coatings.
authors.affiliation: A. J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States.
authors.forename: Eric D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Laird
authors.forename: Wenda
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Presser
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dyatkin
authors.forename: Yury
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gogotsi
authors.forename: Christopher Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Li