Fabrication of Thin Films from Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes*

In this study, an investigation of a recently discovered vacuum filtration and wet transfer method for the spontaneous alignment of single-walled carbon nanotubes in thin films was performed. These films may be employed to investigate their non-linear optical properties and improve the performance of LiFePO4 batteries. The method for fabricating these films is highly efficient, being able to produce and transfer thin films to a substrate within an hour. Using a linear fit of the thickness data, the films were found to be within 15 nm of expectations. Nanotube alignment with a nematic order parameter S = 0.030856 was observed in a film fabricated with 20.3 μg of unsorted carbon nanotubes. This indicated a much smaller alignment within the film, given the limitations of the setup, than reported in previous works. Raman analysis showed the expected RBM, G, and 2D peaks with position percent error of 0.97 %, 0.38 %, and 1.07 %, respectively. Using the Raman RBM peak of the partially aligned film, an average film diameter of 1.515 nm was obtained which is consistent with expected values for single-walled carbon nanotubes fabricated by the arc-discharge technique.