AVS 65th International Symposium & Exhibition
    2D Materials Focus Topic Tuesday Sessions
       Session 2D+EM+MI+NS-TuM

Paper 2D+EM+MI+NS-TuM1
Effect of Lattice Stacking Orientation and Local Thickness Variation on the Mechanical Behavior of Few Layer Graphene Oxide

Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 8:00 am, Room 201B

Session: Properties of 2D Materials including Electronic, Magnetic, Mechanical, Optical, and Thermal Properties
Presenter: Teng Cui, University of Toronto, Canada
Authors: T. Cui, University of Toronto, Canada
S. Mukherjee, University of Toronto, Canada
C.H. Cao, University of Toronto, Canada
P.M. Sudeep, University of Toronto, Canada
J. Tam, University of Toronto, Canada
P.M. Ajayan, Rice University
C.V. Singh, University of Toronto, Canada
Y. Sun, University of Toronto, Canada
T. Filleter, University of Toronto, Canada
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Investigation of few layer 2D materials is fundamentally important to bridge the gap between monolayer and bulk properties, and practically meaningful for applications as reinforcement nanofillers and layered electronic devices. Few layer introduces differences from intrinsic properties of monolayers due to the complexity of structural heterogeneities, such as lattice stacking orientation and local thickness variation. In this work [1], few layer graphene oxide (GO) with different structural heterogeneities were studied using atomic force microscopy-based deflection measurements and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Direct TEM evidence of fracture surfaces and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations revealed decoupled and dissimilar layer crack patterns (i.e., different cracking pathway of top and bottom layers) for misaligned bilayer GO. In contrast, aligned GO bilayers generally fractured with a larger portion of common cracks shared by both layers, indicating stronger interlayer interaction than its misaligned counterpart. MD results also revealed insignificant effect of lattice alignment on the strength and toughness of GO bilayers, which is ~23.5 GPa and ~1.71×10-18 J/nm3, respectively, for both aligned and misaligned cases. Scaling up to ~5 layers and above revealed more significant local thickness heterogeneity and consequently a ~60% reduction of the normalized fracture force and toughness with respect to the average number of layers. MD simulations on partially intercalated few layer GO revealed anisotropic and heterogeneous stress distributions, as well as stress concentration near the inner edges, which may account for the significant reduction of strength and toughness.

[1] T. Cui, S. Mukherjee, C. Cao, P. M. Sudeep, J. Tam, P. M. Ajayan, C. V. Singh, Y. Sun, and T. Filleter, “Effect of Lattice Stacking Orientation and Local Thickness Variation on the Mechanical Behavior of Few Layer Graphene Oxide”, Carbon, accepted.