Electronic Strengthening of Graphene by Charge Doping

TL;DR

Charge doping can significantly enhance graphene's strength by up to 17% through electronic effects that counteract strain-induced phonon softening, revealing a novel method to improve its mechanical properties.

Contribution

This study demonstrates that moderate charge doping enhances graphene's strength via an electronic mechanism, a novel approach compared to traditional structural strengthening methods.

Findings

Charge doping increases graphene's strength by up to 17%.

Electronic effects counteract strain-induced phonon softening.

Over doping may weaken graphene by softening other phonon modes.

Abstract

Graphene is known as the strongest 2D material in nature, yet we show that moderate charge doping of either electrons or holes can further enhance its ideal strength by up to ~17%, based on first principles calculations. This unusual electronic enhancement, versus conventional structural enhancement, of material's strength is achieved by an intriguing physical mechanism of charge doping counteracting on strain induced enhancement of Kohn anomaly, which leads to an overall stiffening of zone boundary K1 phonon mode whose softening under strain is responsible for graphene failure. Electrons and holes work in the same way due to the high electron-hole symmetry around the Dirac point of graphene, while over doping may weaken the graphene by softening other phonon modes. Our findings uncover another fascinating property of graphene with broad implications in graphene-based electromechanical devices.