Nanoindentation of Few-layer Graphene
Liubin Xu
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Tennessee
This page shows visualizations of the nanoindentation process of few-layer graphene. The structure was created by Liubin Xu, as part of the MSE614 course project at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Graphene exhibits novel physical properties and huge application potential. Mechanical properties, especially the plastic region and the inter-plane van der Waals(coupling) of graphene need to be fully explored before its industrial prodcution. Here we use Molecular Dynamics to simulate nanoindentation of 12 rectangular graphene layers, stacked to form a HCP structure, using a spherical rigid indenter. Load-displacement curve is obtained. However, no dislocation is found at current maximum indentation depth 7A even some carbon atoms are kicked out. That's different from traditional metal indentation and can be a result of largely different in-plane covalent bond vs. inter-plance vdw coupling.
Color Legend: posted: April 2016.Interactive Structure
updated: April 2016.