Translucency of Graphene to van der Waals Forces Applies to Atoms/Molecules with Different Polar Character

Graphene has been proposed to be either fully transparent to van der Waals interactions to the extent of allowing switching between hydrophobic and hydrophilic behavior, or partially transparent (translucent), yet there has been considerable debate on this topic, which is still ongoing. In a combined experimental and theoretical study we investigate the effects of different metal substrates on the adsorption energy of atomic (argon) and molecular (carbon monoxide) adsorbates on high-quality epitaxial graphene. We demonstrate that while the adsorption energy is certainly affected by the chemical composition of the supporting substrate and by the corrugation of the carbon lattice, the van der Waals interactions between adsorbates and the metal surfaces are partially screened by graphene. Our results indicate that the concept of graphene translucency, already introduced in the case of water droplets, is found to hold more generally also in the case of single polar molecules and atoms, which are apolar.