Mechanical properties of irradiated single-layer graphene

The mechanical properties of irradiated single-layer graphene sheets are determined as a function of inserted vacancy concentration. We find that the vacancy-induced crystalline-to-amorphous transition is accompanied by a brittle-to-ductile transition in the failure response of irradiated graphene sheets for inserted vacancy concentrations of 8%–12%. While point defects and larger voids appreciably degrade the strength of pristine graphene, we find that even heavily damaged samples (∼20% vacancies) exhibit tensile strengths of ∼30 GPa, in significant excess of those typical of engineering materials. Our results suggest that defect engineering of graphene is feasible without incurring a complete loss of its desirable mechanical properties