Numerical investigation on adhesion properties of graphene nanofilm debonding from substrate

Abstract

The adhesion properties of graphene nanofilm are studied by finite element simulation according to an approach of blister test. The critical debonding load and debonding deflection are calculated, and their dependence on the geometrical dimensions of the graphene nanofilm is analysed when the graphene nanofilm begins to debond from the substrate. The results of simulation show a good agreement with the theoretical results as well as the corresponding experiment results. Furthermore, the influence of adhesion energy and graphene thickness on the debonding behaviour of graphene nanofilm is also investigated, and the results show that there exist an obvious size effects for the critical debonding load and debonding deflection.

Keywords:

• Graphene
• Adhesion energy
• Debonding load
• Debonding deflection
• Blister test

Acknowledgements

The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 11372216) and the National Basic Research Programme of China (973 Programme, Grant no. 2012CB937500).