The peeling behaviour of a graphene sheet on a nano-scale corrugated surface

The peeling process and average peeling force of a graphene (GE) sheet on a corrugated surface are investigated using molecular dynamics simulation. It is found that the peeling behaviour varies with the substrate surface roughness and the peeling angle. Three kinds of typically peeling behaviours include (a) GE sheet directly passing the valley of the substrate roughness; (b) bouncing off from the substrate; and (c) continuously peeling off similarly to that on a flat substrate. As a result, the average peeling force is strongly dependent of the peeling behaviours. Furthermore, some interesting phenomena are caught, such as partial detaching and partial sliding of GE sheet in the valley of the substrate roughness, which are mainly due to the effects of pre-tension in GE sheet and the reduction of friction resistance. The results in this paper should be useful for the design of nano-film/substrate systems. (paper)