A Universal Method for High‐Efficiency Immobilization of Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes toward Fully Printed Paper‐Based Electronics.

Semiconducting single‐walled carbon nanotubes (sc‐SWCNTs) are promising candidates for constructing high‐performance fully printed flexible thin film transistors (TFTs) and circuits. How to achieve highly dense and uniform SWCNT thin films on different substrates has become a key scientific issue for printed flexible carbon‐based electronics. In this work, a universal method to efficiently immobilize conjugated polymer‐sorted sc‐SWCNTs on different substrates using solution‐processable SiO2 thin film as the adhesion layer is developed. Fully printed top‐gate SWCNT TFTs are successfully constructed by combining aerosol jet and inkjet printing using silver electrodes and ionic liquid‐cross‐linkable‐poly(4‐vinylphenol) as metal contact electrodes and dielectrics, respectively. Consequently, the fully printed paper‐based SWCNT TFTs represent extraordinary mechanical flexibility and good electrical properties with high on/off ratio (higher than 105), small subthreshold swing (≈70 mV dec−1), and small hysteresis, as well as high carrier mobility (up to 10.8 cm2 V−1 s−1) at low gate voltages (±1 V). In addition, the resistor‐loaded fully printed paper‐based inverters are also achieved using printed carbon nanotube conductive lines as the loaded resistors, exhibiting relatively large gains (16 at VDD of 1 V) and excellent mechanical flexibility. This work represents an encouraging advancement toward the practical applications of SWCNTs for high‐performance, low‐cost, and eco‐friendly paper‐based electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]