How is graphene cut, given that it is similar in strength and hardness to diamond? I assume you cannot just take a pair of regular scissors to a sheet of it and cut out the shape you want?
[Physics] How to cut graphene
graphenematerial-science
graphenematerial-science
How is graphene cut, given that it is similar in strength and hardness to diamond? I assume you cannot just take a pair of regular scissors to a sheet of it and cut out the shape you want?
Best Answer
The word "strength" actually means a lot of different things in different contexts. Some people will use it (incorrectly) to be synonymous with "stiffness." Sometimes it means the ability to resist permanent deformation when subjected to shearing forces ("yield strength" or "shear strength"). Sometimes it means the ability to hold together even when you're trying to pull it apart ("tensile strength"). And these depend on exactly how you define it, and how quickly you apply the forces, the size/shape/microstructure of the material,etc. It's actually a really complicated thing. "Strength" is not a single well-defined quantity for a material. Similarly, there's more than one definition of "hardness."
One thing I can tell you, though, is this: By any measure, just because material A is "stronger" than material B, that doesn't mean you can never use material B to cut material A.
Take a serrated plastic knife, like you'd get out of a picnic-ware set. Could you cut through a 1-cm thick sheet of aluminum with it? Surely not; you'd destroy the knife pretty quickly. Could you cut through a single sheet of aluminum foil with it? Sure. Easily.
The thickness matters!
Steel knives and scissors can easily cut through a 1-atom-thick layer of anything. If you chop through some graphite pencil lead with a razor blade you'll surely cut through lots of layers of, in effect, graphene. Some of the cutting will go neatly between pre-existing layers and crystalline grains and thus not have to actually cut through any layers, but a lot of it won't.