Conductive and transparent films of oriented multi-walled carbon nanotubes by Langmuir-Schaefer method

While the carbon nanotubes are characterized by excellent electrical, mechanical and thermal properties, which makes them a good candidate for many applications, e.g. as a transparent electrode for photovoltaics, there is still no adequate method for the formation of thin conductive carbon nanotube films. Here we report the Langmuir-Schaefer method for the fabrication of large scale, homogeneous multiwall carbon nanotube layers with good optical and electrical properties. We show that the layers obtained are characterized by optical and electrical anisotropies, which can be controlled by the direction of the barrier and surface pressure during the layer transfer. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.