Article Title

Direct fabrication of carbon nanotube-graphene hybrid films by a blown bubble method

Authors

Shiting Wu, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China
Enzheng Shi, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China
Yanbing Yang, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Wenjing Xu, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China
Xinyang Li, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Anyuan Cao, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China

Keywords

carbon nanotube, graphene, hybrid structure, blown bubble assembly, solar cell

Abstract

Hybridization of carbon nanotubes (CNT) with graphene provides a promising means of integrating the attributes of both materials, thereby enabling widespread application. Here, we present a method to directly assemble hybrid CNT- graphene films by a blown bubble method combined with selective substrate annealing. We use polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as the polymeric matrix to blow bubbles containing self-assembled multi-walled CNT arrays, and then transform the bubble film into a CNT-graphene hybrid film by thermal annealing on a Cu substrate; PMMA serves as the carbon source for growing single to few-layer graphene among the CNT network until a continuously hybridized structure is formed. Compared to the bare (non-hybridized) CNT networks, the hybrid films exhibit improved electrical conductivity and structural integrity. Our method also enables the fabrication of a multi-walled CNT-Si solar cell, which has high power conversion efficiency, through the assembly of hybrid CNT-graphene structures.

Graphical Abstract

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0679-5

Publisher

Tsinghua University Press

Recommended Citation

Shiting Wu,Enzheng Shi,Yanbing Yang,Wenjing Xu,Xinyang Li,Anyuan Cao, Direct fabrication of carbon nanotube-graphene hybrid films by a blown bubble method. NanoRes.2015, 8(5): 1746–1754