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Updated: Mar 19, 2026

Surface Properties of Synthesized Nanoporous Carbon and Silica Matrices
Published on: March 27, 2019
Divergent surface properties of multidimensional sp (2) carbon allotropes: the effect of aging phenomena
Yun-Hsiang Chang1, Tuza Olukan1, Chia-Yun Lai1
1Laboratory for Energy and NanoScience (LENS), Institute Center for Future Energy (iFES), Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Abstract:
Despite the current interest in the scientific community in exploiting divergent surface properties of graphitic carbon allotropes, conclusive differentiation remains elusive even when dealing with parameters as fundamental as adhesion. Here, we set out to provide conclusive experimental evidence on the time evolution of the surface properties of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), graphene monolayer (GML) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as we expose these materials to airborne contaminants, by providing (1) statistically significant results based on large datasets consisting of thousands of force measurements, and (2) errors sufficiently self-consistent to treat the comparison between datasets in atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. We first consider HOPG as a model system and then employ our results to draw conclusions from the GML and MWCNT samples. We find that the surface properties of aged HOPG are indistinguishable from those of aged GML and MWCNT, while being distinct from those of cleaved HOPG. Herein, we provide a sufficient body of evidence to disregard any divergence in surface properties for multidimensional sp (2) carbon allotropes that undergo similar aging processes.
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