Article Title

Comparative study of gel-based separated arcdischarge, HiPCO, and CoMoCAT carbon nanotubes for macroelectronic applications

Authors

Jialu Zhang, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
Hui Gui, Department of Material Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
Bilu Liu, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
Jia Liu, Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
Chongwu Zhou, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA

Keywords

separated carbon nanotubes, thin-film transistors, gel-based column chromatography, purity of semiconducting nanotubes, diameter-dependence

Abstract

Due to their excellent electrical properties and compatibility with room-temperature deposition/printing processing, high-purity single-walled semiconducting carbon nanotubes hold great potential for macroelectronic applications such as in thin-film transistors and display back-panel electronics. However, the relative advantages and disadvantages of various nanotubes for macroelectronics remains an open issue, despite the great significance. Here in this paper, we report a comparative and systematic study of three kinds of mainstream carbon nanotubes (arc-discharge, HiPCO, CoMoCAT) separated using low-cost gel-based column chromatography for thin-film transistor applications, and high performance transistors—which satisfy the requirements for transistors used in active matrix organic light-emitting diode displays—have been achieved. We observe a trade-off between transistor mobility and on/off ratio depending on the nanotube diameter. While arc-discharge nanotubes with larger diameters lead to high device mobility, HiPCO and CoMoCAT nanotubes with smaller diameters can provide high on/off ratios (> 106) for transistors with comparable dimensions. Furthermore, we have also compared gel-based separated nanotubes with nanotubes separated using the density gradient ultracentrifuge (DGU) method, and find that gel-separated nanotubes can offer purity and thin-film transistor performance as good as DGU-separated nanotubes. Our approach can serve as the critical foundation for future carbon nanotube-based thin-film macroelectronics.

Graphical Abstract

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-013-0368-9

Publisher

Tsinghua University Press

Recommended Citation

Jialu Zhang,Hui Gui,Bilu Liu,Jia Liu,Chongwu Zhou, Comparative study of gel-based separated arcdischarge, HiPCO, and CoMoCAT carbon nanotubes for macroelectronic applications. NanoRes.2013, 6(12): 906–920