Conserved atomic bonding sequences and strain organization of graphene grain boundaries

The bulk properties of polycrystalline materials are directly influenced by the atomic structure at the grain boundaries that join neighboring crystallites. In this work, we show that graphene grain boundaries are comprised of structural building blocks of conserved atomic bonding sequences using aberration corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. These sequences appear as stretches of identically arranged periodic or aperiodic regions of dislocations. Atomic scale strain and lattice rotation of these interfaces is derived by mapping the exact positions of every carbon atom at the boundary with ultrahigh precision. Strain fields are organized into local tensile and compressive dipoles in both periodic and aperiodic dislocation regions. Using molecular dynamics tension simulations, we find that experimental grain boundary structures maintain strengths that are comparable to idealized periodic boundaries despite the presence of local aperiodic dislocation sequences.