Side Group of Poly(3-alkylthiophene)s Controlled Dispersion of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Transparent Conducting Film

Abstract

Controlled dispersion of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in common solvents is a challenging issue, especially for the rising need of low cost flexible transparent conducting films (TCFs). Utilizing conductive polymer as surfactant to facilitate SWCNTs solubility is the most successful pragmatic approach to such problem. Here, we show that dispersion of SWCNT with polymer significantly relies on the length of polymer side groups, which not only influences the diameter distribution of SWCNTs in solution, also eventually affects their effective TCF performance. Surfactants with longer side groups covering larger nanotube surface area could induce adequate steric effect to stabilize the wrapped SWCNTs against the nonspecific aggregation, as discerned by the optical and microscopic measurements, also evidenced from the resultant higher electrokinetic potential. This approach demonstrates a facile route to fabricate large-area SWCNTs-TCFs exhibiting high transmittance and high conductivity, with considerable uniformity over 10 cm × 10 cm.

Optoelectronic and Electrothermal Properties of Transparent Conductive Silver Nanowires Films

“…However, some problems still need to be solved before those materials can be widely used for TFH application. Carbon nanotubes have large resistance and graphene’s fabrication process is highly complex [11].…”

Transparent conductive silver nanowires films on glass substrate

“…In recent years, conductive films including transparent conductive thin films have been applied in various ways to a variety of electronic devices, such as displays, touch panels, and the like. Such a conductive film is acquired by forming a transparent conductive thin film having low resistance on a substrate and patterning the transparent conductive thin film [1–5]. Currently, indium tin oxide (ITO) film deposited by sputtering in a vacuum has been widely used as transparent conductive electrodes in display devices [6, 7].…”

“…However, ITO is expensive and vacuum deposition causes low productivity. Furthermore, ITO has high resistance and has difficulty in being applied to large‐area electronic devices [5–7].…”

New Insights into Flexible Transparent Conductive Silver Nanowires Films

“…At present, indium tin oxide (ITO) is a widely used material for the transparent conducting films; however, because of its intrinsic brittleness, relative rarity, and expensive deposition and post-treatment processes, ITO is not suitable for flexible device fabrication. To circumvent the shortcomings of ITO, many materials, including carbon nanotubes [1,2], graphene [3,4], and metal nanowires [5,6], have been studied to find appropriate materials for use as FTCFs.…”