The PSI-graphene, a two-dimensional structure, was a novel carbon allotrope. In this paper, based on molecular dynamics simulation, the effects of stretching direction, temperature and vacancy defects on the mechanical properties of PSI-graphene were studied. We found that when PSI-graphene was stretched along 0° and 90° at 300 K, the ultimate strength reached a maximum of about 65 GPa. And when stretched along 54.2° and 155.2° at 300 K, the Young’s modulus had peaks, which were 1105 GPa and 2082 GPa, respectively. In addition, when the temperature was raised from 300 K to 900 K, the ultimate strength in all directions was reduced. The fracture morphology of PSI-graphene stretched at different angles was also shown in the text. In addition, the number of points removed from PSI-graphene sheet also seriously affected the tensile properties of the material. It was found that, compared with graphene, PSI-graphene didn’t have the negative Poisson’s ratio phenomenon when it was stretched along the direction of 0°, 11.2°, 24.8° and 34.7°. Our results provided a reference for studying the multi-angle stretching of other carbon structures at various temperatures.

We have investigated the glass formation ability of Cu-Zr alloy by molecular dynamics simulation of the deposition process. The atomistic structures of Zr_xCu_100−x metallic glass films have been systematically examined under the growth conditions of hypereutectic-eutectic, near-eutectic, and hypoeutectic regions by the radial distribution function and simulated X-ray diffraction. The structure analysis using Voronoi polyhedron index method demonstrates the variations of short-range order and five-fold local symmetry in Zr_xCu_100−x metallic glass films with respect to the growth conditions. We manifest that the five-fold local symmetry is sensitive to the kinetic energy of the depositing atoms. There is positive correlation between the degree of five-fold local symmetry and glass forming ability. Our results suggest that sputtering conditions greatly affect the local atomic structures and consequential properties. The glass forming ability could be scaled by the degree of five-fold local symmetry. Our study might be useful in optimizing sputtering conditions in real experiments, as well as promising implications in material design of advanced glassy materials.

Carbon honeycomb (CHC) has great application potential in many aspects for the outstanding mechanical properties. However, the effect of both defects and temperature on the mechanical properties are far from reasonable understanding, which might be a huge obstacle for its promising applications as engineering materials. In this work, we investigate the effect of vacancy-type defect, which is inevitably exists in material, on the mechanical properties of CHC via reactive molecular dynamics simulations. The mechanical strength is anisotropic and decreases with the increasing temperature. CHC yield in cell axis direction since the break of C–C bonds on the junction. Vacancies weaken CHC by reducing the strength and failure strain. The effect of single vacancy on strength of CHC becomes more obvious with reducing temperature and is sensitive to the location and bonding of the vacancies. The maximum reduction of strength in cell axis direction is with vacancy on the middle of the wall of CHC where sp² bonds are removed. The strength is reduced by 8.1% at 500 K, 11.5% at 300 K and 12.8% at 100 K. With 0.77% defect concentration, the strength reduces 40.3% in cell axis direction but only 18.7% in zigzag direction and 24.4% in armchair direction.

Carbon honeycomb has a nanoporous structure with good mechanical properties including strength. Here we investigate the adsorption and diffusion of hydrogen in carbon honeycomb via grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations and molecular dynamics simulations including strength. Based on the adsorption simulations, molecular dynamics simulations are employed to study the effect of pressure and temperature for the adsorption and diffusion of hydrogen. To study the effect of pressure, we select the 0.1, 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 bars. Meanwhile, we have studied the hydrogen storage capacities of the carbon honeycomb at 77 K, 153 K, 193 K, 253 K and 298 K. A high hydrogen adsorption of 4.36 wt.% is achieved at 77 K and 20 bars. The excellent mechanical properties of carbon honeycomb and its unique three-dimensional honeycomb microporous structure provide a strong guarantee for its application in practical engineering fields.