Bonding few-layered graphene via collision with high-speed fullerenes

Graphene, as a typical two-dimensional material, is popular in the design of nanodevices. The interlayer relative sliding of graphene sheets can significantly affect the effective bending stiffness of the few-layered graphene. For restricting the relative sliding, we adopted the atomic shot peening method to bond the graphene sheets together by ballistic C60 fullerenes from its two surfaces. Collision effects are evaluated via molecular dynamics simulations. Results obtained indicate that the fullerenes' incident velocity has an interval, in which the graphene sheet can be bonded after collision while no atoms on the fullerenes escaping from the graphene ribbon after collision. The limits of the interval increase with the layer number. Within a few picoseconds of collision, a stable carbon network is produced at an impacted area. The graphene sheets are bonded via the network and cannot slide relatively anymore. Conclusions are drawn to show the way of potential applications of the method in manufacturing a new graphene-based two-dimensional material that has a high out-of-plane bending stiffness.