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Graphene

Show of adhesive strength

Nature Nanotechnology volume 6, pages 537–538 (2011)Cite this article

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The adhesion energies for atomically thin graphene membranes on silicon dioxide substrates have now been measured.

Graphite is composed of layers of carbon atoms that are held together by strong covalent bonds within each graphene layer and relatively weak van der Waals forces between the layers. The mechanical properties of graphite — it is anisotropic and prone to interlayer cleavage — are closely related to the characteristics of these forces. Furthermore, according to recent work at the University of Colorado in Boulder, van der Waals forces could also be responsible for the ultrastrong adhesion between atomically thin graphene membranes and a silicon oxide substrate1. Writing in Nature Nanotechnology, Scott Bunch and co-workers report that the adhesion energy for monolayer graphene on silicon oxide is higher than that for membranes containing between two and five layers of graphene. Although the physical origin for this difference is not fully understood, the team suggests that the extreme flexibility of the monolayer graphene may be responsible.

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Figure 1: Measuring adhesion at the nanoscale.

© VICTOR AND REX TZEN

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rui Huang is in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA,

    Rui Huang

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  1. Rui Huang
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Correspondence to Rui Huang.

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Huang, R. Show of adhesive strength. Nature Nanotech 6, 537–538 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.150

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