Stripe/kink microstructures formed in mechanical peeling of highly orientated pyrolytic graphite

Abstract

Mechanical exfoliation is nowadays the primary method to produce isolated graphenes. A stripe/kink microstructure is observed in our graphite flakes produced by mechanical exfoliation of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). It composes a series of parallel stripes with width of about 100 microns separated by kinking microstructures (∼2 microns) in the graphite flake plane. The formation of such structure is attributed to the sliding between adjacent layers of the HOPG under the mechanical peeling. A theoretical model is presented to understand the persistence of such kinking structures in terms of the interlayer shear force locking effect. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.