Water Protects Graphitic Surface from Airborne Hydrocarbon Contamination.

The intrinsic wettability of graphitic materials, such as graphene and graphite, can be readily obscured by airborne hydrocarbon within 5-20 min of ambient air exposure. We report a convenient method to effectively preserve a freshly prepared graphitic surface simply through a water treatment technique. This approach significantly inhibits the hydrocarbon adsorption rate by a factor of ca.