Integrating carbon nanotubes into plastic electronics
Carbon nanotubes display unique features that make them highly suitable for the fabrication of extremely small field effect transistors. Yet, the exploitation of these properties on a commercial basis for the manufacture of nanodevices is still unexplored. Specific properties, such as the large surface area, conductivity and stability constitute valuable aspects for further use in electrochemical catalysis (e.g. fuel cell electrodes). Key research objectives of CARDECOM project involved the development of some realistic, practical applications of carbon nanotubes in electron guns, catalysis, and composite materials. The Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge focused on the development of a large area, low temperature method to grow nanotubes on surfaces. Aided by a plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes were grown directly on flexible plastic substrates. The individual manipulation of carbon nanotubes is resourceful and cost-ineffective because of their size. Therefore, selective aligned growth of carbon nanotubes on substrates overcomes an important obstacle for the extensive use of carbon nanotubes in different applications. The advanced plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition method offers a highly controllable growth of nanotubes on plastic substrates for plastic electronics. The scalable deposition technique provides large area coverage without degrading or bending the sensitive substrate material. This extends their current application range to fuel cells or field emission devices (display production).
