Sorting of large-diameter semiconducting carbon nanotube and printed flexible driving circuit for organic light emitting diode (OLED)
Xu W., Zhao J., Qian L., Han X., Wu L., Wu W., Song M., Zhou L., Su W., Wang C., Nie S., Cui Z.
A novel approach was developed to sort a large-diameter semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (sc-SWCNT) based on copolyfluorene derivative with high yield. High purity sc-SWCNTs inks were obtained by wrapping arc-discharge SWCNTs with poly[2,7-(9,9-dioctylfluorene)-alt-4,7-bis(thiophen-2-yl)benzo-2,1, 3-thiadiazole] (PFO-DBT) aided by sonication and centrifugation in tetrahydrofuran (THF). The sorted sc-SWCNT inks and nanosilver inks were used to print top-gated thin-film transistors (TFTs) on flexible substrates with an aerosol jet printer. The printed TFTs demonstrated low operating voltage, small hysteresis, high on-state current (up to 10-3 A), high mobility and on-off ratio. An organic light emitting diode (OLED) driving circuit was constructed based on the printed TFTs, which exhibited high on-off ratio up to 104 and output current up to 3.5 × 10-4 A at V scan = -4.5 V and Vdd = 0.8 V. A single OLED was switched on with the driving circuit, showing the potential as backplanes for active matrix OLED applications. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.