  The concept of the diode is usually applied to electronic and thermal devices
but very rarely for mechanical ones. A recently proposed fracture rectification
effect in polymer-based structures with triangular voids defects has motivated
us to test these ideas at the nanoscale using graphene membranes. Using
fully-atomistic reactive molecular dynamics simulations we showed that robust
rectification-like effects exist. The fracture can be 'guided' to easier
propagate along one specific direction than its opposite. We also observed that
there is an optimal value for the spacing between each void for the
rectification effect.
