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Transparent electrodes made from carbon nanotube polyelectrolytes and application to acidic environments

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Abstract

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-based transparent conducting films (TCFs) have been prepared by filtration of (i) surfactant-based aqueous dispersions and (ii) organic solutions obtained by reductive dissolution of an alkali metal salt of polyelectrolyte nanotubes. Starting from the same source of nanotubes, it is shown that films obtained by the reductive dissolution route present up to one order of magnitude better conductivity for the same transmittance. Light scattering experiments show that the average CNT length is much larger for the reductive dissolution-based organic solutions than for the sonication aided aqueous dispersions. Values of surface resistivity of 200 ohm per square have been obtained for 80% transmittance. Additionally, it is shown that the CNT-based TCFs are undistinguishable from indium tin oxide (ITO) as electrodes in regular environments, whereas they perform efficiently in acidic environments where ITO fails.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

AC thanks Arkema and l’Association Nationale pour la Recherche et la Technologie (ANRT) for a PhD grant. Support from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (IMPEC Project) is acknowledged. AP thanks Dr H. Saadaoui for the inset of Fig. 1(a) and the Aquitaine region for a grant to support collaboration with the Emilia Romagna region. This work has been performed within the framework of the GDR-I 3217 “graphene and nanotubes”.

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  1. Amélie Catheline

    Present address: Linde Nanomaterials, 1970 Diamond St., San Marcos, CA, 92078, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal (CRPP), UPR 8641, CNRS, F-33600, Pessac, France

    Amélie Catheline, Philippe Poulin & Alain Pénicaud

  2. CRPP, UPR 8641, Université de Bordeaux, F-33600, Pessac, France

    Amélie Catheline, Philippe Poulin & Alain Pénicaud

  3. Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Bologna, Via Selmi 2, I-40126, Bologna, Italy

    Francesco Paolucci & Giovanni Valenti

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  1. Amélie Catheline
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  2. Francesco Paolucci
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Correspondence to Alain Pénicaud.

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Catheline, A., Paolucci, F., Valenti, G. et al. Transparent electrodes made from carbon nanotube polyelectrolytes and application to acidic environments. Journal of Materials Research 30, 2009–2017 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.166

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