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Several single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) prepared by different methods have been used to investigate the material dependence on the optimal film performance of flexible transparent conducting films. The nanotubes were dispersed in water with sodium dodecyl sulfate by sonication. These SWCNT solutions were then sprayed onto the Poly(ethylene terephthalate) substrate by a spray coater to form the film. Several factors such as purity, diameter, defects, metallicity, and degree of dispersion were evaluated individually to examine how they affect the film performance. We found that the metallicity of SWCNTs and the degree of dispersion are the most crucial factors in determining the film performance. We also proposed a material quality factor to estimate the material quality of SWCNTs as a figure of merit for the film performance.

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A simple and robust dip-coating method for fabricating carbon nanotube (CNT) field emitters has been proposed. The thin multiwalled (tMW)CNTs synthesized by CVD were dispersed in various solutions such as N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), isopropyl alcohol (IPA), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP), and dichloroethane (DCE). The weak adhesion between CNTs and substrate, a serious drawback of the dip-coating approach, was resolved by anchoring CNTs to the substrate via the melting of an indium layer. We found that the uniformity and density of the CNTs could be optimized by controlling the degree of dispersion of CNTs in solvents. The field-emission characteristics are also discussed.

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