Graphene on Cu(111) at the nonzero temperatures: Molecular dynamic simulation

We present results of molecular dynamic simulation of continuous graphene monolayer on Cu(111). In this paper, we investigate the dependencies of the average binding energy and the average binding distance on the temperature. The interaction between carbon and copper atoms was described by Lennard-Jones potential. It is shown that the binding energy practically remains constant in a wide range of temperatures 0–800 K. However, in the same temperature range, the binding distance of graphene on Cu(111) surface has a linear dependence on temperature. The dependence of the linear thermal expansion coefficient of the binding distance on Lennard-Jones parameters has been calculated. We suggest a simple theoretical model to explain this dependence qualitatively.