Plasticity and ductility in graphene oxide through a mechanochemically induced damage tolerance mechanism

Xiaoding Wei, Lily Mao, Rafael A. Soler-Crespo, Jeffrey T. Paci, Jiaxing Huang (), SonBinh T. Nguyen () and Horacio D. Espinosa ()
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Xiaoding Wei: Northwestern University
Lily Mao: Northwestern University
Rafael A. Soler-Crespo: Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Program, Northwestern University
Jeffrey T. Paci: Northwestern University
Jiaxing Huang: Northwestern University
SonBinh T. Nguyen: Northwestern University
Horacio D. Espinosa: Northwestern University

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The ability to bias chemical reaction pathways is a fundamental goal for chemists and material scientists to produce innovative materials. Recently, two-dimensional materials have emerged as potential platforms for exploring novel mechanically activated chemical reactions. Here we report a mechanochemical phenomenon in graphene oxide membranes, covalent epoxide-to-ether functional group transformations that deviate from epoxide ring-opening reactions, discovered through nanomechanical experiments and density functional-based tight binding calculations. These mechanochemical transformations in a two-dimensional system are directionally dependent, and confer pronounced plasticity and damage tolerance to graphene oxide monolayers. Additional experiments on chemically modified graphene oxide membranes, with ring-opened epoxide groups, verify this unique deformation mechanism. These studies establish graphene oxide as a two-dimensional building block with highly tuneable mechanical properties for the design of high-performance nanocomposites, and stimulate the discovery of new bond-selective chemical transformations in two-dimensional materials.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9029

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