Improved Conductivities of SWCNT Transparent Conducting Films on PET by Spontaneous Reduction

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) are transparent in the visible and show conductivity comparable to copper, and are environmentally stable. SWCNT films have high flexibility, conductivity and transparency approaching that indium tin oxide (ITO), and can be prepared inexpensively without vacuum equipment. Transparent conducting Films (TCF) of SWCNTs has the potential to replace conventional transparent conducting oxides (TCO, e.g. ITO) in a wide variety of optoelectronic devices, energy conversion and photovoltaic industry. However, the sheet resistance of SWCNT films is still higher than ITO films. A decreased in the resistivity of SWCNT-TCFs would be beneficial for such an application. We fabricated SWCNT sheet with $KAuBr_4$ on PET substrate. Arc-discharge SWCNTs were dispersed in deionized water by adding sodum dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as surfactant and sonicated, followed by the centrifugation. The dispersed SWCNT was spray-coated on PET substrate and dried on a hotplate at $100^{\circ}C$. When the spray process was terminated, the TCF was immersed into deionized water to remove the surfactant and then it was dried on hotplate. The TCF film was then treated with AuBr4-, rinsed with deionized water and dried. The surface morphology of TCF was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy. The sheet resistance and optical transmission properties of the TCF were measured with a four-point probe method and a UV-visible spectrometry, respectively. $HNO_3$ treated SWCNT films with Au nano-particles have the lowest 61 ${\Omega}$/< sheet resistance in the 80% transmittance. Sheet resistance was decreased due to the increase of the hole concentration at the washed SWCNT surface by p-type doping of $AuBr_4{^-}$.