Spray coating of carbon nanotube on polyethylene terephthalate film for touch panel application.

From a technical perspective, the major limiting factors for the wide adoption of CNT films are the DC conductivity, uniformity of sheet resistance and good adhesion of CNT on film substrate. In this study, the effects of sonificator and process time on the zeta potential and sheet resistance of the CNT-PET film show that although the dispersing power of horn-type sonificator is stronger than that of bath-type, the SWCNT solution obtained with horn-type sonificator agglomerates faster. Likewise, it has been noted that the SWCNT solutions with low enough zeta potentials exhibit higher sheet resistance after making CNT-PET films due to the damage to SWCNTs caused by high dispersion force. Since the spray coating of SWCNT solution gives the SWCNT-SDS composite layer on PET film after drying, the excess SDS should be washed off. The removal of excess SDS was conducted by dipping in the 3 N HNO3 and SOCl2 solution and washing with deionized water followed by heat treatment in a 120 degrees C convection oven for 30 min. The lift-off of SWCNT-SDS composite layer after 40 min dipping in the 3 N HNO3 solution appeared to be due to the continued permeation leading to swelling of the SDS layer by the 3 N HNO3 aqueous solution. It was found that ten times of spray coating cycle gave CNT-PET film the sheet resistance of 310 Ω/[square] and transmittance of 81%. The TSP made with CNT-PET film exhibited a performance equal to the one made with ITO-PET film.