Transparent conductive films (TCFs) are an important component of touch screens, smart windows, liquid crystal displays, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), and organic photovoltaic cells. CHENG Huiming and LIU Chang at CAS Institute of Metal Research have synthesized transparent conductive films of good optoelectronic performance by a chemical vapor deposition method. The pristine SWCNT films showed a low sheet resistance of 41Ω cm-1 at 90% transmittance for 550-nm light. After HNO3 treatment, the sheet resistance further decreases to 25Ω cm-1, better than that of conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) on a flexible substrate. Using this SWCNT film as anodes, the OLEDs constructed demonstrated a high current efficiency of 75 cd A-1, 7.5 times higher than that of the best reported CNT anode–based OLEDs. The OLEDs also exhibited excellent flexibility and stability.

CAS news release, May 15, 2018