Since its discovery in 2004, Graphene has excited the scientific community and sparked a race to understand its properties and mechanics. Like other 2D materials, it has some remarkable properties, such as having a stiffness five times stronger than steel, being an excellent conductor, and having a low bending stiffness. This ability to bend has made graphene a prime target for applications in nano-transistors, capacitors, and other computer components which if successfully produced, could revolutionize the computing industry. 

Much more recently, researchers at the University of Trinity College Dublin have discovered an interesting phenomenon related to Graphene’s low bending stiffness. When exposed to some mechanical stimulus, such as cutting or indentation, graphene nanoribbons will spontaneously tear away from the point of stimulus. These tears will then fold back onto themselves, oftentimes at twist-angle different from the orientation of the bottom layer lattice. This phenomenon is exciting for a multitude of reasons. First, fabrication with 2D materials is difficult as adhesion and van der waals forces dominate as such small sizes. So, if we can stack layers of graphene without complicated machinery and robotics, creating graphene components will become significantly easier. 

However, since this process, called Auto-Kirigami, is dependent on so many factors, there is not enough researched data on the topic to create a model. Thus, the focus of our research is to study the surrounding parameters of Auto-Kirigami so that one day, the process can be controlled for applications. From related research on graphene and its mechanics, there are a couple important starting points for understanding what influences Auto-Kirigami, one of them being humidity. Graphene follows the trend seen in bulk graphite, in which friction increases as Relative Humidity decreases. Since Auto-Kirigami will be heavily dependent on the friction interaction between layers of graphene, it is important to know how humidity will change the formation of Auto-Kirigami. 

Thus, the topic of our research is studying Auto-Kirigami formed through Atomic Force Microscopy cutting while varying Relative Humidity. Cuts will be made on monolayer samples of graphene and the formation of Kirigami will be observed in addition to the frictional data gathered during cutting.