  We carried out fully-atomistic reactive molecular dynamics simulations to
study the elastic properties and fracture patterns of transition metal
dichalcogenide (TMD) MoX2 (X=S, Se, Te) membranes, in their 2H and 1T phases,
within the framework of the Stillinger-Weber potential. Results showed that the
fracture mechanism of these membranes occurs through a fast crack propagation
followed by their abrupt rupture into moieties. As a general trend, the
translated arrangement of the chalcogen atoms in the 1T phase contributes to
diminishing their structural stability when contrasted with the 2H one. Among
the TMDs studied here, 2H-MoSe2 has a higher tensile strength (25.98 GPa).
