Mechanical properties of armchair silicene nanoribbons with edge cracks: a molecular dynamics study

Silicene has been proven to be a promising material with attractive electronic properties. During the synthesis of silicene, structural defects such as edge crack are likely to be generated and such defects in silicene have impacts on its properties. Herein, molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the mechanical properties of the armchair silicene nanoribbons (ASiNRs) with edge cracks. Our results showed that the mechanical properties of the ASiNRs decrease because of the existence of edge crack. Both the pristine ASiNRs and the ASiNRs with edge cracks show brittle fracture behaviours. The crack length plays an important role in determining the critical strain and fracture strength of the ASiNRs. Moreover, we investigated the effects of strain rate and temperature on the mechanical properties of the ASiNRs with edge cracks. We observed that the increasing strain rate increases the critical strain and fracture strength while decreasing the Young’s modulus. Low-strain rates also changes the expanded directions of cracks in the ASiNRs. We also found that the increasing temperature could significantly decrease the mechanical properties of the ASiNRs with edge cracks.