Article abstract
Nature Nanotechnology 2, 372 - 377 (2007)
Published online: 27 May 2007 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2007.150
Subject Categories: Carbon nanotubes and fullerenes | Electronic properties and devices | Synthesis and processing
Large-area blown bubble films of aligned nanowires and carbon nanotubes
Guihua Yu1,4, Anyuan Cao2,4 & Charles M. Lieber1,3
Abstract
Many of the applications proposed for nanowires and carbon nanotubes require these components to be organized over large areas with controlled orientation and density. Although progress has been made with directed assembly and Langmuir–Blodgett approaches, it is unclear whether these techniques can be scaled to large wafers and non-rigid substrates. Here, we describe a general and scalable approach for large-area, uniformly aligned and controlled-density nanowire and nanotube films, which involves expanding a bubble from a homogeneous suspension of these materials. The blown-bubble films were transferred to single-crystal wafers of at least 200 mm in diameter, flexible plastics sheets of dimensions of at least 225 
300 mm2 and highly curved surfaces, and were also suspended across open frames. In addition, electrical measurements show that large arrays of nanowire field-effect transistors can be efficiently fabricated on the wafer scale. Given the potential of blown film extrusion to produce continuous films with widths exceeding 1 m, we believe that our approach could allow the unique properties of nanowires and nanotubes to be exploited in applications requiring large areas and relatively modest device densities.
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
- Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
- These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence to: Anyuan Cao2,4 e-mail: anyuan@hawaii.edu
Correspondence to: Charles M. Lieber1,3 e-mail: cml@cmliris.harvard.edu
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