Brittle-to-ductile transition in fracture of few-layered black phosphorus ribbons under uniaxial stretching

Owing to excellent electrical properties, few-layered black phosphorene (BP) ribbons will be wide used in nano-electro-mechanical systems. Before acting as a component in the nanosystem, they should be fabricated successfully. During peeling, pulling or cutting in fabrication of a few-layered BP ribbon, the load on it should be controlled to be less than its strength or ultimate strain. Otherwise, the ribbon will be broken which means a failed fabrication. For a deep understanding of the damage process, molecular dynamics simulations are adopted to illustrate the fracture of a few-layered BP ribbon under uniaxial stretching. Influence of both temperature and the thickness of the ribbon are discussed. The brittle-to-ductile transition of the three-dimensional fracture mode is discovered, and the mechanism is revealed. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.