Thermal degradation of hydrophobic graphite-based thin film nano-coatings observed by Raman spectroscopy

Highlights: • An alternative method to characterize hydrophobic graphite-based coatings is proposed. • The method relies on Raman spectroscopic analysis of graphite D and G vibrations. • Thermal variation of graphitic Raman modes is a good probe of thermal degradation. • The thermal range of stability of hydrophobic graphite-based coatings is determined. - Abstract: This work reports an alternative method for determining thermal degradation of graphite-based thin film hydrophobic coatings using the D and G graphite vibrations as a probe. We show that the Raman spectrum of the coating as a function of temperature is an efficient probe for detecting changes in the surface properties. Both D and G bands of graphite are sensitive to changes of the coating matrix induced by temperature. We apply the Raman technique to correlate the changes of D and G vibrations with those found by different experimental methods such as contact angle measurements and thermogravimetric analysis to characterize organosilane hydrophobic coatings.