Toughness and Strength of Nanocrystalline Graphene

Abstract

Pristine monocrystalline graphene is claimed to be the strongest material known with remarkable mechanical and electrical properties. However, graphene made with scalable fabrication techniques is polycrystalline and contains inherent nano-scale line and point defects - grain boundaries and grain-boundary triple junctions - that lead to significant statistical fluctuations in toughness and strength. These fluctuations become particularly pronounced for nanocrystalline graphene where the density of defects is high. Here we use large-scale simulation and continuum modeling to show that the statistical variation in toughness and strength can be understood with 'weakest-link' statistics. We develop the first statistical theory of toughness in polycrystalline graphene, and elucidate the nano-scale origins of the grain-size dependence of its strength and toughness. Our results should lead to more reliable graphene device design, and provide a framework to interpret experimental results in a broad class of 2D materials.

arXiv comment6 pages, 5 figures, 50 References

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• The Strength of Mechanically-Exfoliated Monolayer Graphene
• Determination of the elastic moduli of CVD graphene by probing graphene/polymer Bragg stacks
• Transport properties through graphene grain boundaries: strain effects versus lattice symmetry
• Coexistence of Reconstructed and Unreconstructed Structures in Structural Transition Regime of Twisted Bilayer Graphene
• A Reactive Molecular Dynamics Study on the Mechanical Properties of a Recently Synthesized Amorphous Carbon Monolayer Converted into a Nanotube/Nanoscroll
• Structure and mechanical properties of monolayer amorphous carbon and boron nitride
• Rupture of amorphous graphene via void formation
• Graphene Design with Parallel Cracks: Abnormal Crack Coalescence and Its Impact on Mechanical Properties
• Structural dynamics of a model of amorphous silicon
• Sliding Over Graphene Grain Boundaries: A Step Towards Macroscale Superlubricity