Tunable ductility of a nano-network from few-layered graphene bonded with benzene: a molecular dynamics study

Developing novel graphene-based materials with unique mechanical properties is of significance to meet the requirements in new applications. The pristine graphene shows a brittle fracture when the stretching strain on it exceeds the critical value. Further, it fails to bear the external load. Herein, to enhance the ductility of the pristine graphene, we proposed a corrugated sandwich carbon network based on few-layered graphene, in which the two surface layers are bonded with several corrugated core layers via benzene molecules. The effects of factors such as the geometry, temperature, and strain rate on the ductility of the carbon network were evaluated using the uniaxial tension tests by molecular dynamics simulations. Results show that the new carbon material has more than one peak fracture strain in stretching. The second peak fracture strain is proportional to the length difference between the surface layers and core layers. Hence, the carbon network has a tunable ductility, which suggests a flexible design of such novel materials in a nanostructure/nanodevice with large deformation.