Abstract
This study addresses a combination of a well-developed and mild dispersion method and high-quality arc discharge single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as starting materials. Thus, we advance in fabrication of transparent, conducting films with extraordinary low material loss during SWCNT processing. The starting material was characterized by means of thermogravimetric analysis, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The quality of the starting material and produced dispersions was evaluated by ultraviolet and visible light absorption spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. A transparent conductive film was fabricated by drop-casting, whereas films were obtained with electrical to optical conductivity ratios (σDC/σOp) as high as 2.2, combined with a loss of nanotube material during processing well below 20 wt%. High pressure carbon monoxide conversion (HiPCO) SWCNTs, which are very well described in the literature, were used for comparison.
Highlights
Two decades of research disclosed outstanding mechanical and electrical properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs).[1,2,3,4,5] Combined with the high transparency of thin SWCNT lms, their high inherent conductivity calls for this extraordinary material to be used in transparent, conducting thin lms as, for example, electrode materials.[6,7]The current industry standard for transparent electrodes is indium tin oxide (ITO), whose use is associated with substantial disadvantages which foster the idea to look for replacements
We focused in our work on the outstanding arc discharge SWCNTs from Iljin Nanotech, which are well known for the effective production of transparent conducting lms.[17,33,41]
We calculated the ratio sDC/sOp, which is a widely used gure of merit,[16] to be 2.1 to 2.2 for lms produced with Iljin SWCNTs which is an order of magnitude higher than the values we found for High pressure carbon monoxide conversion (HiPCO) SWCNT lms deposited with the same method
Summary
Two decades of research disclosed outstanding mechanical and electrical properties of SWCNTs.[1,2,3,4,5] Combined with the high transparency of thin SWCNT lms, their high inherent conductivity calls for this extraordinary material to be used in transparent, conducting thin lms as, for example, electrode materials.[6,7]The current industry standard for transparent electrodes is indium tin oxide (ITO), whose use is associated with substantial disadvantages which foster the idea to look for replacements.
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