A simple filtration method is developed to prepare a partially oriented superhydrophobic film of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that have been catalyzed with uniform small Pt nanoparticles (2.8 nm) at high metal loading (30 wt %). A proton-exchange membrane fuel cell with the oriented CNT film as the cathode achieves higher single-cell performance than those with carbon black and a disordered CNT-film...

Ethanol is a highly combustible chemical universally designed for biomedical applications. In this paper, optical sensing performance of tapered multimode fiber tip coated with carbon nanotube (CNT) thin film towards aqueous ethanol with different concentrations is investigated. The tapered optical multimode fiber tip is coated with CNT using drop-casting technique and is annealed at 70 °C to e...

Ink-jet printing is an important process for placing active electronics on plastic substrates. We demonstrate ink-jet printing as a viable method for large area fabrication of carbon nanotube CNT thin film transistors TFTs . We investigate different routes for producing stable CNT solutions “inks” . These consist of dispersion methods for CNT debundling and the use of different solvents, such a...

The exceptional electronic, thermal, mechanical, and optical characteristics of carbon nanotubes offer significant improvement in diverse applications such as flexible electronics, energy conversion, and thermal management. We present an overview of recent research on the fabrication, characterization and modeling of carbon nanotube (CNT) networks or ensembles for three emerging applications: t...

In recent years, the demand for thin film coatings on large area substrates has been rapidly increasing. Coating is some times required to make an object harder, or to provide the surface with particular electrical and optical properties. Hence, research on thin film science has received much attention due to its tremendous applications in modern technology. The importance of coatings and the s...

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) of diameters of 10–40 nm are synthesized on Fe and Co coated nm-scale catalyst support in a xylene chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process without the need for ferrocene iron source. Silica ( 40 nm diameter) and nanocrystalline Au ( 10 nm) are coated with a monolayer of amine, sulfonate, or thiol termination to ensure monolayer Fe loading, reduce Fe surface mi...

We develop an electrothermal transport model for nanocomposite thin films based on self-consistent solution of drift-diffusion and Poisson equations for electrons coupled with diffusive transport of heat. This model is used to analyze the performance of an electronic display the pixels of which are controlled by carbon nanotube CNT network thin-film transistors TFTs . The effect of electrotherm...

A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a miniature cylindrical carbon structure that has hexagonalgraphite molecules attached at the edges. Nanotubes look like a powder or black soot, but they'reactually rolled-up sheets of graphene that form hollow strands with walls that are only one atom thick.Carbon nanotube has been one of the most actively explored materials in recent year(s) due to...

Nanostructured hematite thin films are doped with zirconium successfully and also modified by introducing CNT using sol-gel method for their implementation as photo-electrode in photo-electrochemical (PEC) cell for hydrogen generation. XRD, UV-visible spectroscopy and PEC study techniques are used to characterize the thin films. The PEC responses of thin films are improved by introducing carbon...

In this work, nanostructured TiO2 and Cr-doped TiO2 thin films were deposited on glass substrate through sonochemical-chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The resulting thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy techniques. The TiO2 thin film has nanocubic morphology and ...