Wrinkling Instability of Graphene on Substrate-Supported Nanoparticles

Abstract

Wrinkles in graphene with desirable morphology have practical significance for electronic applications. Here we carry out a systematic molecular dynamics study of the wrinkling instability of graphene on substrate-supported nanoparticles (NPs). At a large NP dispersion distance, a monolayer graphene adheres to the substrate and bulges out locally to wrap around individual NPs, forming isolated dome-shaped protrusions. At a small NP dispersion distance, tunneling wrinkles form in graphene to bridge the NP-induced protrusions. A critical NP dispersion distance for the onset of tunneling wrinkle instability of graphene is determined as a function of the NP size. The prediction from the modeling study agrees well with recent experimental observations. Results from the present study offer further insights into the formation of desirable wrinkles in graphene deposited on a substrate with engineered protrusions and, thus, can potentially enable novel design of graphene-based electronics.

Reversible Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Ripped Graphene

“…We attribute the formation of these delamination and wrinkle features to the combined effect of a mismatch in Poisson's ratios between graphene and the PDMS substrate and the relatively weak graphene/PDMS interfacial bonding. In addition, recent studies show that the location of wrinkles in graphene can be guided by the debris distribution on the substrate surface 17 , consistent with our experimental observations in Fig. 2.…”

Directional transport of molecular mass on graphene by straining

“…An atom is positioned above the graphene with a separation distance of h. In order to establish a semi-continuum cohesive law between the atom and the graphene, we homogenize carbon atoms in the graphene and represent them by an area density . The cohesive energy Φ between the atom and the graphene is therefore given by [21,39].…”

“…Introducing strain in graphene by wrinkling [20][21][22], folding [23][24][25] and functionalization [26][27][28][29][30][31] in a programmable fashion have received enormous attention largely due to the need to actively control the electronic and structural properties of graphene [32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. Nevertheless few efforts have been made to explore the effect of straining graphene on directional transport of molecular mass.…”

Molecular dynamics simulation of nickel‐coated graphene bending

“…However, in the previous calculations [16][17][18] the authors considered the absolutely flat sheet under periodical boundary conditions that is not suitable for crumpling modelling. At the same time, graphene on the rigid substrate not always remains flat [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. In the latest years, the morphologies of graphene on the corrugated surface [20][21][22][23] and substrate-supported nanowires [24] or nanoparticles [25] were studied in detail.…”