Abstract The effect of Stone-Wales (SW) defects on the tensile mechanical properties and deformation mechanism of the zigzag and armchair single graphene sheets was investigated using molecular dynamics simulation with Tersoff bond-order interatomic potential. The numerical simulation results show that there is no effect on the Young’s modulus of the two chiral graphene sheets due to the presence of single SW defect, while the effects on the tensile strength, strain and deformation mechanism are dependent on the chirality of graphene. For armchair graphene sheets, single SW defect is observed to reduce the tensile stress and limit tensile strain by as much as 5.04% and 7.07%, respectively. It is also found that SW defect serves as nucleation site for fracture under tension. However, for zigzag graphene sheets, single SW defect has no effect on the mechanical properties and deformation mechanism.
2011, Vol. 32 
