Topological Mechanochemistry of Graphene

In view of the formal topology, two common terms, namely, the connectivity and adjacency, determine the 'quality' of the C-C bonds of sp(2) nanocarbons. The feature is the most sensitive point of the inherent topology of the species so that such external action as the mechanical deformation should obviously change it and result in particular topological effects. The current chapter describes the effects caused by uniaxial tension of a graphene molecule in due course of the mechanochemical reaction. Basing on the molecular theory of graphene, the effects are attributed to both mechanical loading and chemical modification of the edge atoms of the molecule. The mechanical behavior is shown to be not only highly anisotropic with respect to the direction of the load application, but greatly dependent on the chemical modification of the molecule edge atoms thus revealing the topological character of the graphene deformation.