Principles for fabricating moisture barrier films via stacked Janus graphene layers

CF Zhou and HJ Gao and SY Bu and HT Wu and F Liang and FF Li and ZN Hu and YX Zhao and BB Guo and ZL Li and L Yin and XK Hu and Q Xie and Y Su and ZF Liu and L Lin, NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 16, 3512 (2025).

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58799-y

The excellent impermeability makes graphene film an ideal candidate for thin film encapsulation technology. However, current chemical vapor deposition (CVD) graphene-based barrier films can not provide sufficient moisture barrier performance, suggesting a lack of understanding in mechanism that dominates water diffusion in/through graphene stacks. Herein, we fabricate large-area graphene barrier films with a record-low water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of 5 x 10-5 g/(m2day), two orders of magnitude lower than previous works, in which two stacked Janus graphene films are intercalated by toluidine blue O (TBO) sub- monolayer: one side of graphene is decorated with fluorine- and oxygen- containing groups to allow crack-free transfer, while the other side is functionalized with hydroxyl groups to trap water. The intercalated TBO further blocks water transport due to a strong water-TBO interaction. Our work opens a route for surface/interface engineering of CVD graphene and promises its exciting future in the applications for advanced packaging.

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