News

New way to know an old friend: New method reveals clean carbon nanotube transistors with superb properties

Published:
Scientists at Aalto University, Finland, and Nagoya University, Japan, have found a new way to make ultra-clean carbon nanotube transistors with superior semiconducting properties
Nanotube transistors on a chip being tested electically
A chip with 1000 nano-sized devices being tested Credit: Aalto University

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) have found many uses in electronics and new touch screen devices. Carbon nanotubes are sheets of one atom-thick layer of graphene rolled up seamlessly into different sizes and shapes. To be able to use them in commercial products like transparent transistors for phone screens, researchers need to be able to easily test nanotubes for their materials properties, and the new method helps with this.

Professor Esko I. Kauppinen’s group at Aalto has years of experience in making carbon nanotubes for electronic applications. The team’s unique method uses aerosols of metal catalysts and gasses containing carbon.  This aerosol-based method allows the researchers to carefully control the nanotube structure directly.

Fabricating single carbon nanotube transistors is usually tedious. It often takes days from raw carbon nanotube material to transistors, and the devices were contaminated with processing chemicals, degrading their performance. However the new method makes it possible to fabricate hundreds of individual carbon nanotube devices within 3 hours, an over ten times increase in efficiency.

electron microscope image of nanotubes in a transistor
Electron microscope image of one of the 1000 devices on the chip. The white line between the two electrodes is a single carbon nanotube, which is being tested

Most importantly, these fabricated devices do not contain degrading processing chemicals on their surface. These so-called ultra-clean devices have been previously even more difficult to manufacture than regular single carbon nanotube transistors.

‘These clean devices help us to measure the intrinsic material properties. And the large number of devices helps to get a more systematic understanding of the nanomaterials, rather than just a few data points.’ says Dr. Nan Wei, a postdoctoral researcher in the group.

This study shows the aerosol-based nanotubes are superb in terms of their electronic quality, their ability to conduct electricity is almost as good as theoretically possible for SWCNTs.

More importantly, the new method can also contribute to applied research. One example is that by studying the conducting property of SWCNT bundle transistors, scientists may find ways to improve performance of flexible conductive films. This could prove useful for designers trying to build flexible, smash-proof phones. Follow-up work by the groups in Japan and Finland is already underway.

The article was published in “Advanced Functional Materials” in November 2019. You can read about it here http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201907150

Reesarchers

Esko Kauppinen

Professori
[email protected]
+358405098064

Nan Wei

Contingent worker
[email protected]
+358504332236
  • Published:
  • Updated:
Share
URL copied!

Read more news

See all
Eveliina Peltola. Photo: Lassi Savola.
Appointments, Research & Art Published:

Eveliina Peltola: Mathematics is beautiful because in it everything falls into place in a natural way

Assistant Professor Eveliina Peltola sees mathematics as a universal language that people need to get into before they can use it.
Lääkäri juttelee lapsen kanssa
Press releases, Research & Art Published:

Researchers develop better way to determine safe drug doses for children

New research on organ maturation models could lead to improvements in drug development
alto_University_Learning_Centre Tuomas_Uush
Research & Art Published:

Volunteer as a Publication Forum (JUFO) panellist!

Julkaisufoorumi (JUFO, the Publication Forum) is appointing new panels for the term 2022-2025. The panels are responsible for the ranking of publication channels, mainly journals and conference series. This ranking is used in the funding model of the Ministry of Education and Culture. It is thus important that all publication channels are correctly ranked. We are now looking for volunteers for all fields relevant to Aalto.
Unite! Charter on Diversity and Inclusion.jpeg
Research & Art, Studies, University Published:

Unite! university alliance strongly committed on promoting diversity and inclusion

Unite!, a pioneering European university alliance, has published their Charter on Diversity and Inclusion.
See all