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Self-Retracting Motion of Graphite Microflakes

Quanshui Zheng, Bo Jiang, Shoupeng Liu, Yuxiang Weng, Li Lu, Qikun Xue, Jing Zhu, Qing Jiang, Sheng Wang, and Lianmao Peng
Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 067205 – Published 14 February 2008
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    Abstract

    We report the observation of a novel phenomenon, the self-retracting motion of graphite, in which tiny flakes of graphite, after being displaced to various suspended positions from islands of highly orientated pyrolytic graphite, retract back onto the islands under no external influences. Reports of this phenomenon have not been found in the literature for single crystals of any kind. Models that include the van der Waals force, electrostatic force, and shear strengths were considered to explain the observed phenomenon. These findings may conduce to create nanoelectromechanical systems with a wide range of mechanical frequency from megahertz to gigahertz.

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    • Received 11 September 2007

    DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.067205

    ©2008 American Physical Society

    Authors & Affiliations

    Quanshui Zheng* and Bo Jiang

    • Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

    Shoupeng Liu, Yuxiang Weng, Li Lu, and Qikun Xue

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100080, China

    Jing Zhu

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

    Qing Jiang

    • School of Engineering, University of California, Riverside, California 92521-0425, USA

    Sheng Wang and Lianmao Peng

    • Department of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

    • *zhengqs@tsinghua.edu.cn

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    Vol. 100, Iss. 6 — 15 February 2008

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    Images

    • Figure 1
      Figure 1
      Flakes: (a) countless tiny graphite pieces produced as drawing with a 2B pencil; (b) illustrative steps for carving square graphite-SiO2 islands from a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) coated with a SiO2 film; (c) top views of some samples of square islands; (d) an illustration of a slipped flake, its graphite platform, and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) side view of an overthrown flake showing it to consist of a SiO2 film of thickness 104 nm and graphite laminate of thickness 38.8 nm.Reuse & Permissions
    • Figure 2
      Figure 2
      The slip and self-retraction of flakes: (a) slip without rotation, (b) slip with rotation, (c)–(f) selected frames of a video recording of the in situ backward slipping (c)–(e) and retracting (f) of a 1  μm island (see the EPAPS movie [18]); (g) the wrapped microflake slipped from a 5  μm island and did not self-retract the multiflake slip. Scale bar for (a),(b) is 2  μm, and that for (c)–(g) is 1  μm.Reuse & Permissions
    • Figure 3
      Figure 3
      Self-retracting motion observed under an optical microscope (HiRox KH-3000). (a) Manipulation and observation under the optical microscope in a room circumstance. (b) Unslipped and slipped flakes (insets captured from two retracting motion movies).Reuse & Permissions
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