Increasing the eleastic modulus of graphene by controlled defect creation

The presence of lattice defects in graphene might degrade its mechanical properties. We report a study on the elastic modulus and strength with a controlled density of defects. Counter-intuitively, the in-plane Young’s modulus increases with defect density up to 2x the initial value for a vacancy content of ~0.2%.
Nature Physics 11, 26–31 (2015)