Nanotribological behavior analysis of graphene/metal nanocomposites via MD simulations: New concepts and underlying mechanisms

In this article, we report a series of MD-based nanoindentation tests aimed to examine the nanotribological characteristics of metal-based nanocomposites in the presence of graphene sheets. To evaluate the effects of graphene/matrix interactions on the results, nickel and copper are selected as metals having strong and weak interactions with graphene, respectively. Consequently, the influence of graphene layers sliding and their distance from the sample surface on the nanoindentation outputs is thoroughly examined. Additionally, the temperature dependence of the results is deeply investigated with emphasis on the underlying mechanisms. To verify the accuracy of nanoindentation outputs, results of this method are compared with the data obtained via the tensile test. It is concluded that the nanoindentation results are closer to the values obtained by means of experimental setups. Employing these numerical-based experiments enables us to perform parametric studies to find out the dominant factors affecting the nanotribological behavior of these nanocomposites at the atomic-scale.