Flexible and Wearable Devices based on Transferred Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays

The assembly of carbon nanotubes into aligned arrays on various substrates, including plastics and fabrics, is highly desired for new applications such as flexible electronics and smart textiles. Thus, we report our recent advance on transfer printing of aligned nanotubes from the original sapphire/quartz substrates to virtually any other substrates, including glass, silicon, polymer sheets, and even fabrics. Nanotube networks transferred to PET substrates were observed to be highly conductive, transparent, and flexible as well. In addition, based on transferred nanotube arrays on various substrates, we have successfully demonstrated nanotube transistors with on/off ratios -10
³
.