Step-by-step fracture of two-layer stacked graphene membranes

Layer-by-layer assembly of graphene has been proven to be an effective way to improve its mechanical properties, but its fracture mechanism, which is crucial for practical device applications, is still not clear and has not been fully studied yet. By consecutive stacking of two graphene monolayers, we fabricate two-layer stacked graphene membranes with a clean interface between the two layers. Fracture behavior of the two-layer stacked graphene membranes is studied using nanoindentation performed by atomic force microscopy. It is found that the fracture force distribution of stacked graphene is very different from that of monolayer graphene. Weibull statistics of fracture forces show that after layer-by-layer stacking of graphene, the membrane becomes less sensitive to the defects during nanoindentation, improving the overall performance of the graphene membranes. Interestingly, a third of our tested membranes show a stepwise fracture, which could serve as a warning message for the mechanical failure of multilayer graphene devices. Our study provides insight into the fracture mechanism of multilayer graphene membranes.