Investigation of mechanical behavior of single- and multi-layer graphene by using molecular dynamics simulation

Graphene has been researched intensively due to its outstanding mechanical and electrical properties. However, understanding of its behavior in atomic scale is still lacking because of difficulties in experimental methods at this small scale. In this study, molecular dynamics simulation was conducted to evaluate the mechanical behavior and properties of graphene by indenting a spherical rigid tip onto circular graphene flakes. Circular graphene flakes with a diameter of 17 nm were modeled and its elastic modulus was examined with respect to the number of graphene layers. As a result, it was found that the elastic modulus of graphene ranged from 0.92 to 1.08 TPa. In addition, fracture of graphene appeared at a lower indentation depth for the multi-layer graphene compared to that of a single-layer graphene.