Transparent and flexible conductors are a major component in many modern optoelectronic devices, such as touch screens for smart phones, displays, and solar cells. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) offer a good alternative to commonly used conductive materials, such as metal oxides (e.g. ITO) for flexible electronics. The production of transparent conductive patterns, and arrays composed of connected CNT "coffee rings" on a flexible substrate poly(ethylene terephthalate), has been reported. Direct patterning is achieved by inkjet printing of an aqueous dispersion of CNTs, which self-assemble at the rim of evaporating droplets. After post-printing treatment with hot nitric acid, the obtained TCFs are characterized by a sheet resistance of 156 Ω sq(-1) and transparency of 81% (at 600 nm), which are the best reported values obtained by inkjet printing of conductive CNTs. This makes such films very promising as transparent conductors for various electronic devices, as demonstrated by using an electroluminescent device.

Carbon nanotube (CNTs) inks may provide an effective route for producing flexible electronic devices by digital printing. In this paper we report on the formulation of highly concentrated aqueous CNT inks and demonstrate the fabrication of flexible electroluminescent (EL) devices by inkjet printing combined with wet coating. We also report, for the first time, on the formation of flexible EL devices in which all the electrodes are formed by inkjet printing of low-cost multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Several flexible EL devices were fabricated by using different materials for the production of back and counter electrodes: ITO/MWCNT and MWCNT/MWCNT. Transparent electrodes were obtained either by coating a thin layer of the CNTs or by inkjet printing a grid which is composed of empty cells surrounded by MWCNTs. It was found that the conductivity and transparency of the electrodes are mainly controlled by the MWCNT film thickness, and that the dominant factor in the luminance intensity is the transparency of the electrode.

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