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Buckled Graphene for Efficient Energy Harvest, Storage, and Conversion

Buckling is one of the most common phenomena in atomic-thick layered structures like graphene. While the buckling phenomenon usually causes disaster for most nano-devices, we illustrate one positive application of the buckled graphene for energy harvest, storage, and conversion. More specifically, we perform molecular dynamical simulations to show that the buckled graphene can be used to collect the wasted mechanical energy and store the energy in the form of internal knotting potential. Through strain engineering, the knotting potential can be converted into useful kinetic (thermal) energy that is highly concentrated at the free edges of the buckled graphene. The present study demonstrates potential applications of the buckled graphene for converting the dispersed wasted mechanical energy into the concentrated useful kinetic (thermal) energy.