Gas flow helps peeling more than sliding.
A free-energy comparison finds that gas flow assists edge peeling most strongly. Helium mixtures retain much of the modeled energy transfer.
ACS Applied Nano Materials · 2026 · Saeed Arabha, Cuiying Jian, Ray Hixon, Reza Rizvi
A separation has more than one route
Gas-assisted exfoliation could help produce graphene at high volume, but a gas stream can separate layers through more than one route. Comparing only final sheet motion does not show how difficult each pathway is energetically.
How do gas conditions and graphene structure change the free-energy cost of separating layers under compressible flow?
Tracing the path, configuration by configuration
The study combines molecular dynamics with potential-of-mean-force calculations to map exfoliation pathways. It varies flow velocity, temperature, pressure, sheet size, layer count, defects, and gas composition so those conditions can be compared within one framework.
A potential-of-mean-force calculation describes how free energy changes along a chosen separation coordinate. Combining it with molecular dynamics connects the motion of the gas and sheets to the energetic landscape that the layers encounter.
Key findings
Pathway comparison
The main output is a set of free-energy profiles for distinct layer-separation pathways under compressible flow, giving a common way to compare how difficult each route is.
Process variables
Velocity, temperature, pressure, gas species, layer count, sheet size, and defects are treated as connected design variables rather than isolated settings.
Use of the map
The framework is intended to help screen gas-assisted exfoliation conditions relevant to higher-volume graphene production and nanocomposite applications.
An energetic foundation for scaling up
This paper contributes a comparison framework for exfoliation pathways. The detailed parameter maps and numerical outcomes are in the publisher version linked below.
The story here introduces the framework and the variables it connects. For a specific pathway or operating condition, the original publication is the place to examine the quantitative maps.