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To fabricate transparent conducting films (TCFs) for electronic devices, both a high conductivity and thermal stability are significant issues due to the need for a high temperature annealing proce...

Hole doping into carbon nanotubes can be achieved. However, the doped nanotubes usually suffer from the lack of air and moisture stability, thus, they eventually lose their improved electrical properties. Here, we report that a salt of the two-coordinate boron cation Mes2B+ (Mes: 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl group) can serve as an efficient hole-doping reagent to produce nanotubes with markedly high stability in the presence of air and moisture. Upon doping, the resistances of the nanotubes decreased, and these states were maintained for one month in air. The hole-doped nanotube films showed a minimal increase in resistance even upon humidification with a relative humidity of 90%.

The fabrication of flexible transparent conducting films (TCFs) is important for the development of the next-generation flexible devices. In this study, we used double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) as the starting material and described a fabrication method of flexible TCFs. We have determined in a quantitative way that the key factors are the length and the dispersion states of the DWCNTs as well as the weight-ratios of dispersant polymer/DWCNTs. By controlling such factors, we have readily fabricated a flexible highly transparent (94% transmittance) and conductive (surface resistivity = 320 Ω sq-1) DWCNT film without adding any chemical doping that is often used to reduce the surface resistivity. By applying a wet coating, we have succeeded in the fabrication of large-scale conducting transparent DWCNT films based on the role-to-role method.