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Mechanical buckling induced periodic kinking/stripe microstructures in mechanically peeled graphite flakes from HOPG

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Abstract

Mechanical exfoliation is a widely used method to isolate high quality graphene layers from bulk graphite. In our recent experiments, some ordered microstructures, consisting of a periodic alternation of kinks and stripes, were observed in thin graphite flakes that were mechanically peeled from highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. In this paper, a theoretical model is presented to attribute the formation of such ordered structures to the alternation of two mechanical processes during the exfoliation: (1) peeling of a graphite flake and (2) mechanical buckling of the flake being subjected to bending. In this model, the width of the stripes L is determined by thickness h of the flakes, surface energy \(\gamma \), and critical buckling strain \(\varepsilon _{\mathrm{cr}}\). Using some appropriate values of \(\gamma \) and \(\varepsilon _{\mathrm{cr}}\) that are within the ranges determined by other independent experiments and simulations, the predicted relations between the stripe width and the flake thickness agree reasonably well with our experimental measurements. Conversely, measuring the L–h relations of the periodic microstructures in thin graphite flakes could help determine the critical mechanical buckling strain \(\varepsilon _{\mathrm{cr}}\) and the interface energy \(\gamma \).

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Acknowledgments

Q.S.Z. acknowledges the financial support from NSFC (Grant 10832005), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant 2007CB936803), and the National 863 Project (Grant 2008AA03Z302). Jefferson Zhe Liu acknowledges the support from the engineering faculty of Monash University through seed grant 2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Mechanics and Center for Nano and Micro Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Manrui Ren, Ze Liu & Quan-shui Zheng

  2. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Jefferson Zhe Liu

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  1. Manrui Ren
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  2. Ze Liu
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  3. Quan-shui Zheng
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  4. Jefferson Zhe Liu
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Correspondence to Quan-shui Zheng or Jefferson Zhe Liu.

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Ren, M., Liu, Z., Zheng, Qs. et al. Mechanical buckling induced periodic kinking/stripe microstructures in mechanically peeled graphite flakes from HOPG. Acta Mech. Sin. 31, 494–499 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-015-0417-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-015-0417-6

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