Highly Conductive, Transparent Flexible Films Based on Metal Nanoparticle-Carbon Nanotube Composites

Metallic nanoparticles decorated on MWCNTs based transparent conducting thin films (TCFs) show a cheap and efficient option for the applications in touch screens and the replacement of the ITO film because of their interesting properties of electrical conductivity, mechanical property, chemical inertness, and other unique properties, whichmay not be accessible by their individual components. However, a great challenge that always remains is to develop effective ways to prepare junctions between metallic nanoparticles and MWCNTs for the improvement of high-energy barriers, high contact resistances, and weak interactions which could lead to the formation of poor conducting pathways and result in the CNT-based devices with low mechanical flexibility. Herein, we not only discuss recent progress in the preparation of MNP-CNT flexible TCFs but also describe our research studies in the relevant areas. Our result demonstrated that the MNP-CNT flexible TCFs we prepared could achieve a highly electrical conductivity with the sheet resistance of similar to 100 ohm/sq with similar to 80% transmittance at 550 nm even after being bent 500 times. This electrical conductivity ismuch superior to the performances of otherMWCNT-based transparent flexible films, making it favorable for next-generation flexible touch screens and optoelectronic devices.