Investigation on the large tensile deformation and mechanical behaviors of graphene kirigami

One of the main challenges in developing future stretchable nanoelectronics is the mismatch between the hard inorganic semiconductor materials and the ductility requirements in the applications. This paper shows how the kirigami architectural approach, inspired by the ancient Japanese art of cutting and folding paper applied on macroscale, might be an effective strategy to overcome this mismatch on nanoscale. In this work, the tensile large deformation and mechanical behaviors of armchair and zigzag graphene kirigami with rectangles and half circles cutting patterns are investigated based on classical molecular dynamics simulations. The effects of three non-dimensional geometric parameters that control the cutting patterns on the mechanics and ductility of graphene kirigami are also studied systematically. The results indicate that the enhancement in fracture strain can reach more than five times the fracture strain of pristine graphene. The defined three parameters can be adjusted to tailor or manipulate the ductility and mechanical behaviors of graphene. These results suggest that the kirigami architectural approach may be a suitable technique to design superductile two-dimensional nanomaterials and potentially expand their applications to other strain-engineered nanodevices and nanoelectronics.