Elastic straining of free-standing monolayer graphene

The extraordinary mechanical properties of graphene were measured on very small or supported samples. In our new paper published in Nature Communications, by developing a protocol for sample transfer, shaping and straining, we report the outstanding elastic properties and stretchability of free-standing single-crystalline monolayer graphene under in situ tensile tests.

The measured Young’s modulus is close to 1 TPa, aligning well with the theoretical value, while the representative engineering tensile strength reaches ~50-60 GPa with sample-wide elastic strain up to ~6%.

Our findings demonstrate that single-crystalline monolayer graphene can indeed display near ideal mechanical performance, even in a large area with edge defects, as well as resilience and mechanical robustness that allows for flexible electronics and "elastic strain engineering" applications.