Tensile Properties of Carbon Nanoring Linked Graphene Sheets: A Molecular Dynamics Investigation

The effects of CNR diameter and CNR number on tensile properties of the CNR-graphene hybrid structure (CGHS) were studied by molecular dynamics simulation in this paper. Results show that interactions between adjacent graphene sheets are significantly strengthened by the cross-linked CNRs. For CGHSs, the maximum strength is ~64.0 GPa and the maximum Young’s modulus strength is ~763 GPa. When the diameter of CNRs is large or the CNR linkers are dense, the tensile strength of CGHSs reached the maximum and the fracture mechanism of CGHSs changed from CNR-graphene junction fracture to graphene sheet fracture. Present work should serve as guide to experiments concerning physical properties of this novel material.