Macroscopic graphene membranes and their extraordinary stiffness
Abstract
The properties of suspended graphene are currently attracting enormous interest, but the small size of available samples and the difficulties in making them severely restrict the number of experimental techniques that can be used to study the optical, mechanical, electronic, thermal and other characteristics of this one-atom-thick material. Here we describe a new and highly-reliable approach for making graphene membranes of a macroscopic size (currently up to 100 microns in diameter) and their characterization by transmission electron microscopy. In particular, we have found that long graphene beams supported by one side only do not scroll or fold, in striking contrast to the current perception of graphene as a supple thin fabric, but demonstrate sufficient stiffness to support extremely large loads, millions of times exceeding their own weight, in agreement with the presented theory. Our work opens many avenues for studying suspended graphene and using it in various micromechanical systems and electron microscopy.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0805.1884,
title = {Macroscopic graphene membranes and their extraordinary stiffness},
author = {T. J. Booth and P. Blake and R. R. Nair and D. Jiang and E. W. Hill and U. Bangert and A. Bleloch and M. Gass and K. S. Novoselov and M. I. Katsnelson and A. K. Geim},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0805.1884},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
10 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for Nano Letters. v4 includes corrections to theory, updated references, corrected typos