Atomistic study of the shock physics of the nanoegg graphene

The shock loading requires high stress-strain rate dynamic response of materials which is quite different from conventional condensed matter physics. Materials with high ballistic resistance capacity and high strength-to-weight ratio are critically important in the development of protective systems. The traditional high quality body armor comprises lightweight multilayer fabrics and elastic fibrous composites which are often installed behind a stiff ceramic strike face. Besides fabrics, nanomaterials including graphene have also been proved to be an extraordinary candidate of armor material, owing to their extremely high stiffness and high strength-to-weight ratio. Nanoegg graphene is a new family of graphene derivatives with an egg-tray shape due to the pattered pentagon-peptagon defects. Although they have not been fabricated yet, a few types of nanoegg graphene have been predicted to be stable through first-principles calculations. With the increase in the out-of-plane distance due to its unique shape, the nanoegg graphene is expected to have higher strength-to-weight ratio than graphene, and therefore, it is potentially a much better protective material. Here we propose to investigate the protective performance of nanoegg graphenes. We will examine the structural properties, energetics, and instabilities of 14 kinds of nanoegg graphene under shock loading. We will study the interaction of carbon atoms and the evolutions of atomistic defect structures of these 14 nanoegg graphene structures under shock loading with high strain and tress rates and temperatures. We will examine the responses of these 14 nanoegg graphenes under transverse impact of projectiles and shockwaves. We will explore the energy propagation and dissipation processes. We will assess the ballistic resistance capacity of nanoegg graphene. Finally we will optimize the shock-loading performance of nanoegg graphenes. This proposed study will be performed using molecular dynamics simulations as well as first-principles calculations. This investigation will advance our fundamental understanding of shock physics in nanoscales and potentially obtain an outstanding protective nanomaterials.