Nanoindentation models and Young’s modulus of few-layer graphene: a molecular dynamics simulation study

This study reports the molecular dynamics simulation of multilayer graphene to investigate the influence of deflection, layers, temperature and stack patterns on the determination of Young's modulus using nanoindentation models. Results reveal that the Young's modulus of graphene is not consistent under different strain scopes, with the value being much larger in small deflection scopes. However, the values of Young's modulus of multilayer graphene were rather consistent irrespective of the different stack patterns. Conversely, the relationship between Young's modulus and temperature is almost linear in the region of 300–1000 K, with the value of Young's modulus increasing proportionally with temperature. The derived value of Young's modulus is about 1.00 TPa for multilayer graphene, in good agreement with monolayer graphene and close to the measured values of some experiments.