Effect of Intrinsic Ripples on Elasticity of the Graphene Monolayer

The effect of intrinsic ripples on the mechanical response of the graphene monolayer is investigated under uniaxial loading using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with a focus on nonlinear behavior at a small strain. The calculated stress-strain response shows a nonlinear relation through the entire range without constant slopes as a result of the competition between ripple softening and bond stretching hardening. For a small strain, entropic contribution is dominant due to intrinsic ripples, leading to elasticity softening. As the ripples flatten at increasing strain, the energetic term due to C–C bonds stretching competes with the entropic contribution, followed by energetic dominant deformation. Elasticity softening is enhanced at increased temperature as the ripple amplitude increases. The study shows that the intrinsic ripple of graphene affects elasticity. This result suggests that a change of ripple amplitudes due to various environmental conditions such as temperature, and substrate interactions can lead to a change of the mechanical properties of graphene. The understanding of the rippling effect on the mechanical behavior of 2D materials is useful for strain-based ripple manipulation for their engineering applications.