A theoretical consideration of the ballistic response of continuous graphene membranes

Abstract

The remarkable properties of graphene, including unusually high mechanical strength and stiffness, have been well-documented. In this paper, we combine an analytical solution for ballistic impact into a thin isotropic membrane, with ab initio density functional theory calculations for graphene under uniaxial tension, to predict the penetration resistance of multilayer graphene membranes. The calculations show that continuous graphene membranes could enable ballistic barriers of extraordinary performance, enabling resistance to penetration at masses up to 100 lighter than existing state-of-the-art barrier materials. The very high elastic wave speed and strain energy to failure are the major drivers of this increase in performance.However, the in-plane mechanical isotropy of graphene, as compared to conventional orthotropic © 2015. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ Wetzel et al., "A Theoretical Consideration of the Ballistic Response of Continuous Graphene Membranes" 2 woven textiles, also contributes significantly to the efficiency of graphene as a barrier material.This result suggests that, for barrier applications, isotropic membranes composed of covalently bonded two-dimensional molecular networks could provide distinct advantages over fiber-based textiles derived from linear polymers.

Fracture of graphene: a review

“…This exceptional behavior was attributed to the superior in-plane speed of sound, high strength, stiffness, and structural anisotropy of multilayer graphene. A recent theoretical study (Wetzel et al 2015) on the ballistic response of continuous graphene membranes showed that ideal pristine graphene exhibits 10-100 stronger resistance to penetration per unit mass than conventional barrier materials, indicating an enormous potential of graphene-based armor materials.…”

Ballistic response of hexagonal boron nitride monolayer under impact of a nano-projectile

“…(4), . Both experimental (Lee et al, 2008) and computational (Wetzel et al, 2015) studies have shown that the nonlinear elastic behavior of 2D crystals under axial tension can be described by 2 2 + 2 2…”

“…By Ref. (Wetzel et al, 2015), using the scaling factor of h-BN divided by that of graphene, the ballistic limit of h-BN is predicted as 0.86 that of graphene , approximately 10 times that of Kevlar 129 (V bl-graphene ~ 11.6×V bl-Kevlar in (Wetzel et al, 2015)). From Table 3, we found that h-BN membrane, similarly to graphene, is an excellent light-weight armor material due to its low density, high strength, superior in-plane wave speed and the remarkable ballistic limit.…”

“…Lee et al (2014) approximately 10 times that of steel target. Based on a membrane analysis proposed by Phoenix et al (2003) and the uniaxial mechanical behaviors of graphene using ab initio density functional theory (DFT), Wetzel et al (2015) predicted the ballistic resistance of graphene and showed that multilayer graphene could achieve ballistic performance of the existing armor materials, e.g. Kevlar 129, with significant reduction of areal density of about two orders.…”

Supersonic Nanoparticle Interaction with Suspended CVD Graphene

“…By varying nanoparticle size and energy, the mechanical properties of suspended graphene under bombardment were explored at energies where nanoparticle deformation [1], fracture toughness [2], and elastic modulus [3], among other properties, result in varying interactions. These experiments help to better elucidate the potential role of graphene in ballistics applications [4] as well as the utilization of nanoparticle bombardment to modify graphene membranes for a variety of applications such as filtration and separation at the nanoscale with high permeances [5].In this study, we utilize a custom nanoparticle generation system, an Ionwerks NPlanter, to bombard suspended graphene produced by CVD with silver nanoparticles at supersonic velocities and, in some instances, at hypervelocitiy. The instrument has the capability to size select nanoparticles at specified diameters <30 nm and accelerate them at suspended graphene with energies up to 30 keV with controlled fluence.…”