Patterning of hierarchically aligned single-walled carbon nanotube Langmuir-Blodgett films by microcontact printing

We present a patterning method for hierarchically aligned assembly of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) using a combination of the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique and soft lithography. The LB technique allows one to control the alignment and the surface density of SWNTs by adjusting surface pressure of the film at the air-water interface. The aligned SWNT Langmuir films are successfully transferred onto the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or silicon substrate with unidirectional alignment, and SWNT patterns with various shapes are fabricated on silicon and flexible poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) substrates by contacting and peeling off the PDMS stamp from the substrates via microcontact printing or lift-up methods. The SWNT patterning technique using the combination of soft lithography and the LB method can be applied in various fields, such as flexible high-speed transistors, high-efficiency solar cells, and transparent electrodes.