American Chemical Society
Browse

Imperceptible and Ultraflexible p‑Type Transistors and Macroelectronics Based on Carbon Nanotubes

Download (2.38 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2016-01-26, 00:00 authored by Xuan Cao, Yu Cao, Chongwu Zhou
Flexible thin-film transistors based on semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes are promising for flexible digital circuits, artificial skins, radio frequency devices, active-matrix-based displays, and sensors due to the outstanding electrical properties and intrinsic mechanical strength of carbon nanotubes. Nevertheless, previous research effort only led to nanotube thin-film transistors with the smallest bending radius down to 1 mm. In this paper, we have realized the full potential of carbon nanotubes by making ultraflexible and imperceptible p-type transistors and circuits with a bending radius down to 40 μm. In addition, the resulted transistors show mobility up to 12.04 cm2 V–1 S–1, high on–off ratio (∼106), ultralight weight (<3 g/m2), and good mechanical robustness (accommodating severe crumpling and 67% compressive strain). Furthermore, the nanotube circuits can operate properly with 33% compressive strain. On the basis of the aforementioned features, our ultraflexible p-type nanotube transistors and circuits have great potential to work as indispensable components for ultraflexible complementary electronics.

History