Enhanced Process Integration and Device Performance of Carbon Nanotubes via Flocculation
Abstract
Polymer sorting is a promising strategy for purifying semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs), offering high selectivity and yield, in addition to low cost and scalability. However, sorting conditions that maximize the yield lead to CNT dispersions with significant amounts of excess sorting polymer. This has undesirable implications for CNT device performance, such as decreased charge carrier mobility and on–off ratio. Here, a method for removing excess sorting polymer based on flocculation is demonstrated. This approach is broadly applicable to various sorting polymers and facilitates recycling of the sorting polymer. In addition, devices made with flocculated CNTs exhibit improved performance and require minimal post‐processing steps. Flocculation was found to be particularly effective for inkjet‐printed CNT transistors on SiO2, producing devices with mobilities ≈10 cm2 V‐1 s‐1 and on–off ratios ≈106. These results show that flocculation is a facile approach to improving the process integration and device performance of polymer‐sorted CNTs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1002/smtd.201800189
Entities
People
- Francisco Molina‐lopez
- Theodore Gao
- Ting Lei
- Zhenan Bao
Organizations
- National Science Foundation
- Stanford University
- United States Department of Defense