Liquid-crystalline processing of highly oriented carbon nanotube arrays for thin-film transistors

Abstract

We introduce a simple solution-based method for the fabrication of highly oriented carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays to be used for thin-film transistors. We exploit the liquid-crystalline behavior of a CNT solution near the receding contact line during tilted-drop casting and produced long-range nematic-like ordering of carbon nanotube stripes caused by confined micropatterned geometry. We further demonstrate that the performance of thin-film transistors based on these densely packed and uniformly oriented CNT arrays is largely improved compared to random CNTs. This approach has great potential in low-cost, large-scale processing of high-performance electronic devices based on high-density oriented CNT films with record electrical characteristics such as high conductance, low resistivity, and high career mobility.