Interlayer binding energy of graphite -- A direct experimental determination

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new experimental method to directly measure the interlayer binding energy of graphite, providing a benchmark value of 0.27 J/m² for future research.

Contribution

It presents the first direct experimental measurement of graphite's interlayer binding energy, filling a significant gap in material property data.

Findings

Measured interlayer binding energy: 0.27 J/m²

Method provides a benchmark for theoretical and experimental studies

First direct measurement of this property in graphite

Abstract

Despite interlayer binding energy is one of the most important material properties for graphite, there is still lacking report on its direct experimental determination. In this paper, we present a novel experimental method to directly measure the interlayer binding energy of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). The obtained values of the binding energy are 0.27($\pm $0.02)J/m$^{2}$, which can serve as a benchmark for other theoretical and experimental works.