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Highly conductive single-walled carbon nanotube thin film preparation by direct alignment on substrates from water dispersions.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Azoz, S; Exarhos, AL; Marquez, A; Gilbertson, LM; Nejati, S; Cha, JJ; Zimmerman, JB; Kikkawa, JM; Pfefferle, LD
Published in: Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
January 2015

A safe, scalable method for producing highly conductive aligned films of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) from water suspensions is presented. While microfluidic assembly of SWNTs has received significant attention, achieving desirable SWNT dispersion and morphology in fluids without an insulating surfactant or toxic superacid is challenging. We present a method that uniquely produces a noncorrosive ink that can be directly applied to a device in situ, which is different from previous fabrication techniques. Functionalized SWNTs (f-SWNTs) are dispersed in an aqueous urea solution to leverage binding between the amine group of urea and the carboxylic acid group of f-SWNTs and obtain urea-SWNT. Compared with SWNTs dispersed using conventional methods (e.g., superacid and surfactants), the dispersed urea-SWNT aggregates have a higher aspect ratio with a rodlike morphology as measured by light scattering. The Mayer rod technique is used to prepare urea-SWNT, highly aligned films (two-dimensional nematic order parameter of 0.6, 5 μm spot size, via polarized Raman) with resistance values as low as 15-1700 Ω/sq in a transmittance range of 2-80% at 550 nm. These values compete with the best literature values for conductivity of SWNT-enabled thin films. The findings offer promising opportunities for industrial applications relying on highly conductive thin SWNT films.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids

DOI

EISSN

1520-5827

ISSN

0743-7463

Publication Date

January 2015

Volume

31

Issue

3

Start / End Page

1155 / 1163

Related Subject Headings

  • Chemical Physics
 

Citation

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Azoz, S., Exarhos, A. L., Marquez, A., Gilbertson, L. M., Nejati, S., Cha, J. J., … Pfefferle, L. D. (2015). Highly conductive single-walled carbon nanotube thin film preparation by direct alignment on substrates from water dispersions. Langmuir : The ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids, 31(3), 1155–1163. https://doi.org/10.1021/la503919u
Azoz, Seyla, Annemarie L. Exarhos, Analisse Marquez, Leanne M. Gilbertson, Siamak Nejati, Judy J. Cha, Julie B. Zimmerman, James M. Kikkawa, and Lisa D. Pfefferle. “Highly conductive single-walled carbon nanotube thin film preparation by direct alignment on substrates from water dispersions.Langmuir : The ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids 31, no. 3 (January 2015): 1155–63. https://doi.org/10.1021/la503919u.
Azoz S, Exarhos AL, Marquez A, Gilbertson LM, Nejati S, Cha JJ, et al. Highly conductive single-walled carbon nanotube thin film preparation by direct alignment on substrates from water dispersions. Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids. 2015 Jan;31(3):1155–63.
Azoz, Seyla, et al. “Highly conductive single-walled carbon nanotube thin film preparation by direct alignment on substrates from water dispersions.Langmuir : The ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids, vol. 31, no. 3, Jan. 2015, pp. 1155–63. Epmc, doi:10.1021/la503919u.
Azoz S, Exarhos AL, Marquez A, Gilbertson LM, Nejati S, Cha JJ, Zimmerman JB, Kikkawa JM, Pfefferle LD. Highly conductive single-walled carbon nanotube thin film preparation by direct alignment on substrates from water dispersions. Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids. 2015 Jan;31(3):1155–1163.
Journal cover image

Published In

Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids

DOI

EISSN

1520-5827

ISSN

0743-7463

Publication Date

January 2015

Volume

31

Issue

3

Start / End Page

1155 / 1163

Related Subject Headings

  • Chemical Physics