The paper is co-authored by Professor Sondipon Adhikari, Chair of Aerospace Engineering at Swansea University, and Dr A Srikantha of the University of British Columbia’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Nanotechnology is published by the Institute of Physics (IoP) and the paper, which is ranked among the top eight papers in the Materials category, is entitled ‘Effective elastic mechanical properties of single layer graphene sheets’.

The team’s work focuses on the elastic moduli, and other effective mechanical parameters, of single layer graphene sheets (a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp²-bonded carbon atoms, densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice), which have been a subject of intensive research in recent years.

In their paper, the team propose truss-type analytical models and an approach based on cellular material mechanics theory, to describe the in-plane linear elastic properties of the single layer graphene sheets.

The team’s work ultimately aims to understand the mechanical properties of graphene, a fundamental building block of many carbon-based nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes. This understanding will enable designing nanostructures and devices with superior strength, stiffness and performance.

Nanotechnology’s 2009 highlights are available online.