Disordering in Stone—Wales graphene at high temperatures

Thermally activated structural disordering is numerically studied in Stone—Wales graphene, which is a recently predicted new allotropic modification of graphene. The elastic characteristics of this material are analyzed. The Young modulus ($E= 857$ GPa) and Poisson ratio ($\nu = 0.39$) are determined. Defect formation processes under strong heating are studied by the real-time molecular dynamics method. It is demonstrated that melting begins with the formation of large windows in the monolayer and splitting of transversely oriented carbon chains from it. A criterion for the melting of two-dimensional systems is used to analyze the results. The upper estimate for the melting temperature is about $3800$ K, which is much lower than the corresponding value for graphene.