AbstractWe study the buckling behaviour of a single rectangular graphene layer by a molecular mechanics force field approach. The so called MM3–Potential [1] is used to model the atomistic interactions. The global minimum of the total potential energy is calculated for a prescribed linear displacement field at the edges of the plate. Various buckled configurations depending on the dimension of the plate are calculated and are compared with results from continuum mechanics. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)