Interaction of the Stone–Wales defects in graphene

The interaction of Stone–Wales defects in graphene has been investigated by computer modeling. It has been shown that the defects can both repel and attract each other (depending on their mutual orientation and distance between them). The determining role in the attraction mechanism is apparently played by strong anisotropic deformation of graphene by defects. The constructive interference of wavy distortions of the monolayer structure formed by defects leads to large transverse atomic displacements, which can be one of the causes of the experimentally observed “crumpled” graphene texture.