Thickness and chirality effects on tensile behavior of few-layer graphene by molecular dynamics simulations

The mechanical response of few-layer graphene (FLG), consisting of 2-7 atomic planes and bulk graphite is investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations. By performing uniaxial tension tests at room temperature, the effects of number of atomic planes and chirality angle on the stress-strain response and deformation behavior of FLG were studied using the Tersoff potential. It was observed that by increasing of the FLG number of layers, the increase of bonding strength between neighboring layers reduce the elastic modulus and ultimate strength. It was found that, while the chirality angle of FLG showed a significant effect on the elastic modulus and ultimate tensile strength of two and three graphene layers, it turns to be less significant when the numbers of layers are more than four. Finally, by plotting the deformation behavior, it was concluded that FLGs present brittle performance. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.