• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.506-512
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• 2019

Although graphene has been successfully grown in large scale via chemical vapor deposition (CVD), it is still questionable whether the mechanical properties of CVD graphene are equivalent to those of exfoliated graphene. In addition, there has been an issue regarding how the tilt angle of the grain boundary (GB) affects the strength of graphene. We investigate the mechanical properties of CVD graphene with nanoindentation from atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Surprisingly, the samples with GB angles of 10° and 26° yielded similar fracture stresses of ~ 80 and ~ 79 GPa, respectively. Even for samples with GB exhibiting a wider range, from 0° to 30°, only a slightly wider fracture stress range (~ 50 to ~ 90 GPa) was measured, regardless of tilt angle. The results are contrary to previous studies that have reported that GBs with a larger tilt angle yield stronger graphene film. Such a lack of angle dependence of GB can be attributed to irregular and well-stitched GB structures.