Bending stiffness of a graphene sheet

Abstract

The paper proposes a discrete mechanical model of monolayer graphene. A relation between parameters of the model and elastic characteristics of its equivalent continuum is derived by comparing the energy of small strains on micro- and macroscales. The relation allows one to determine the microscale interaction parameters from experimental data and, knowing the microscale parameters, to determine the mechanical properties of graphene. The main aim of the work is to estimate the bending stiffness of a graphene sheet. The proposed discrete model provides an analytical dependence of the graphene sheet bending stiffness on the microscale interaction parameters.