The fabrication of carbon-nanotube-coated electrodes and a field-emission-based luminescent device.

Tungsten substrates were coated with an Ni or Ni-Co catalyst by the electroless dip coating technique. Various carbon nanotubes were synthesized by the catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method under different growth conditions. It was observed that Ni-and Ni-Co-coated tungsten substrates give very good growth of carbon nanotubes (CNT) in terms of yield, uniformity and alignment at a growth temperature of 600 degrees C. We fabricated a field-emission-based luminescent light bulb where a tungsten wire coated with carbon nanotubes served as a cathode. Results show lower threshold voltage, better emission stability and higher luminescence for CNT cathodes in comparison with uncoated tungsten cathodes. We found that aligned-coiled carbon nanotubes are superior to straight CNTs in terms of field emission characteristics and luminescence properties.