Retracted: Combined Printing of Highly Aligned Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotube Thin Films with Liquid Metal for Direct Fabrication of Functional Electronic Devices

Abstract

Latest progress in research and development of advanced materials containing single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) has considerably improved their wide‐spread and large‐scale practical applications in cutting‐edge electronic devices. One difficult challenge lies in the controllable fabrication of large arrays of very well aligned SWCNTs with a predetermined direction and density. Here, a printing technique that precisely implements accurate long‐range SWCNT self‐assembly on SiO2/Si substrates modified with octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) is introduced. The process is performed using a potential microflow inside SWCNT suspensions on a smooth hydrophobic OTS‐treated surface. Such printing strategy can be further developed to align and assemble other various nanotubes and nanowires. In particular, the CNT array and the newly emerging room‐temperature liquid metal (LM) with intrinsically excellent conductivity and enormous bendability are successfully combined for the first time. This enabled direct making of the first ever printed high‐performance LM–aligned SWCNT solar cells, transistors, and optoelectronic devices with excellent flexibility. In addition, the realized devices are rather uniform over large areas, which is one of the most important requirements for mass production. The present achievement suggests an important way toward low cost and large‐scale manufacturing of next generation flexible electronic devices, and also will significantly advance LM integrated functional electronics.