Although sheets of layered van der Waals solids offer great opportunities to custom-design nanomaterial properties, their weak interlayer adhesion challenges structural stability against mechanical deformation. Here, bending-induced delamination of multilayer sheets is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations, using graphene as an archetypal van der Waals solid. Simulations show that delamination of a graphene sheet occurs when its radius of curvature decreases roughly below Rc=5.3nm×(number of layers)3/2 and that, as a rule, one-third of the layers get delaminated. These clear results are explained by a general and transparent model, a useful future reference for guiding the design of nanostructured van der Waals solids.
@article{arxiv.1309.0917,
title = {Bending-Induced Delamination of van der Waals Solids},
author = {Pekka Koskinen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.0917},
year = {2013}
}