Self healing nature of bilayer graphene

The phenomenon of self healing of cracks in bilayer graphene sheet has been studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The bilayer graphene sheet was subjected to uniaxial tensile load resulting in initiation and propagation of cracks on exceeding the ultimate tensile strength. Subsequently, all forces acting on the sheet were removed and sheet was relaxed. The cracks formed in the graphene sheet healed without any external aid within 0.4 ps The phenomenon of self healing of the cracks in graphene sheet was found to be independent of the length of the crack, but occurred for critical crack opening distance less than 5 A for AA stacked sheet and 13 A for AB stacked bilayer graphene sheet. Self healing was observed for both AB (mixed stacking of armchair and zigzag graphene sheet) and AA (both sheets of similar orientation i.e. either armchair-armchair or zigzag-zigzag) stacking of bilayer graphene sheet.