Transparent and conductive multi walled carbon nanotubes flexible electrodes for optoelectronic applications

Abstract

Regarding their flexibility, transparency and their ability to conduct, the carbon nanotubes thin films has been a growing interest for applications in optoelectronics. This paper illustrates a process of fabrication for multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) thin films on PET (polyethylene terephthalate) substrates to obtain flexible conductive electrodes. Actually, there are several processes to elaborate a flexible conductive electrode using carbon nanotubes, such as: (i) Direct deposition using spin coating, spraying, or incubation produces films, or (ii) deposition by vacuum filtration. In our experiments, we had adopted the deposition by vacuum filtration method to prepare our flexible electrodes using the PET substrate. The optimum result was achieved with a concentration of 1.2mg/ml, corresponding to a sheet resistance (Rs) of 180Ωcm−2 with optical transparence about 81% at 550nm. We will also demonstrate the usage of elaborated flexible conductive electrodes to fabricate organic diodes having the following structure: PET–MWCNTs/P3HT: PC70BM/Al.