Electrical properties of transparent carbon nanotube networks prepared through different techniques

Ultra-thin, optically transparent and electrically conducting films of pure carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are widely studied thanks to their promise for broad applications. In the present work, we study and compare different deposition techniques for the production of these networks: dip-coating, spray-coating, vacuum filtration and electrophoretic deposition on a quartz glass using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) produced by the HiPCo method. In order to optimize the net-works, besides the various deposition techniques we also investigate how the optical and electrical properties vary if the networks are fabricated from different CNTs, all synthesized by the CVD method: SWCNTs, DWCNTs and MWCNTs. As the main criteria for evaluating the quality of these CNT networks: we measure the electrical surface resistance at a certain optical transmittance and correlate it to the morphology (homogeneity and roughness) of the networks. (c) 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.