A possible self-healing mechanism in damaged graphene by heat treatment

As an emerging candidate of high-performance electrical and mechanical devices, graphene may be damaged unexpectedly by external force or constant strain in practical applications, resulting in the lifespan and performance degradation in graphene-based devices. Here, nano-damage in suspended graphene monolayer is created via a rigid C60 molecule. By applying molecular dynamics simulations, we show that the self-healing procedure happens under adequate heat treatment. It suggests an efficient two-stage self-healing mechanism in damaged graphene: local curvature introduced by defects around the damage and curved surface smoothed via defects reconstruction which leads to damage shrinking. In addition, our simulations indicate that thermal fluctuation and the size of damage determine the self-healing capability of graphene. These results may offer additional insights for realizing self-healing nano-devices composed of graphene.