Exfoliation of single-walled carbon nanotubes induced by the structural effect of perylene derivatives and their optoelectronic properties

We designed an innovative and effective dispersion system for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) by introducing an exfoliation concept. Perylene derivatives were used as organic additives for dispersion of the SWCNTs. The SWCNT solutions were characterized with UV-vis-NIR absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Our newly designed dispersion system improved the degree of dispersion of the SWCNTs more than 10% and showed much better dispersion stability, compared to a conventional dispersion system. Furthermore, from the optoelectronic properties, we found that our designed dispersion system reduced the sheet resistance by about 50% at similar transmittance. Our analysis demonstrated that our designed dispersion system could provide a well-dispersed SWCNTs solution with long-term dispersion stability even under an extremely low dispersant concentration for dispersion of SWCNTs (weight ratio of CNTs/organic additive = 1, concentration of organic additives = 0.1 g/L, sonic treatment = 6 h).