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Wafer-scale monodomain films of spontaneously aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes

Nature Nanotechnology volume 11, pages633–638(2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

The one-dimensional character of electrons, phonons and excitons in individual single-walled carbon nanotubes leads to extremely anisotropic electronic, thermal and optical properties. However, despite significant efforts to develop ways to produce large-scale architectures of aligned nanotubes, macroscopic manifestations of such properties remain limited. Here, we show that large (>cm2) monodomain films of aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes can be prepared using slow vacuum filtration. The produced films are globally aligned within ±1.5° (a nematic order parameter of ∼1) and are highly packed, containing 1 × 106 nanotubes in a cross-sectional area of 1 μm2. The method works for nanotubes synthesized by various methods, and film thickness is controllable from a few nanometres to ∼100 nm. We use the approach to create ideal polarizers in the terahertz frequency range and, by combining the method with recently developed sorting techniques, highly aligned and chirality-enriched nanotube thin-film devices. Semiconductor-enriched devices exhibit polarized light emission and polarization-dependent photocurrent, as well as anisotropic conductivities and transistor action with high on/off ratios.

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Figure 1: Fabrication and characterization of wafer-scale monodomain films of aligned CNTs.
Figure 2: Characterization of aligned CNT films through polarization-dependent optical spectroscopy.
Figure 3: Optoelectronic devices made from aligned and (6,5)-enriched CNT films.
Figure 4: Electronic devices made from aligned CNT films.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) programme of the US Department of Energy through grant no. DE-FG02-06ER46308 (for the preparation and characterization of aligned carbon nanotube films) and the Robert A. Welch Foundation through grant no. C-1509 (for terahertz and infrared characterization). S.K.D. and E.H.H. acknowledge support from the LANL LDRD programme. Portions of this work were performed at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, a US Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility. The authors thank H. Kasai, A. Zubair, C. Sewell, S. Peters and T. Higashira for their assistance with terahertz characterization measurements and I. Kurganskaya, A. Lüttge, R. Headrick and M. Pasquali for discussions.

Author information

Author notes

  1. John M. Robinson

    Present address: Present address: Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80302, USA,

  2. Xiaowei He and Weilu Gao: These authors contributed equally to this work

Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, 77005, Texas, USA

    Xiaowei He, Weilu Gao, Qi Zhang, John M. Robinson & Junichiro Kono

  2. College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China

    Lijuan Xie

  3. Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, Houston, 77005, Texas, USA

    Bo Li, Sidong Lei, Weipeng Wang, Robert Vajtai, Pulickel M. Ajayan, W. Wade Adams, Robert H. Hauge & Junichiro Kono

  4. Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, 87545, New Mexico, USA

    Erik H. Hároz & Stephen K. Doorn

  5. Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, 77005, Texas, USA

    Robert H. Hauge

  6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, 77005, Texas, USA

    Junichiro Kono

Authors
  1. Xiaowei He
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Contributions

X.H. and W.G. developed the process of making aligned CNT films, performed most of the characterization experiments, and analysed the data obtained, under the supervision and guidance of W.W.A., R.H.H. and J.K. L.X. prepared chirality-enriched SWCNT suspensions, in collaboration with E.H.H. and S.K.D. B.L. made the AFM measurements and B.L. and W.W. performed TEM imaging, under the advisement of R.V. and P.M.A. Q.Z. and J.M.R. participated in the terahertz and infrared spectroscopy measurements. S.L. helped characterize the FET devices. X.H., W.G. and J.K. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Junichiro Kono.

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He, X., Gao, W., Xie, L. et al. Wafer-scale monodomain films of spontaneously aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nature Nanotech 11, 633–638 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2016.44

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