Dispersant-free conducting pastes for flexible and printed nanocarbon electrodes.

Han, Joong Tark; Jeong, Bo Hwa; Seo, Seon Hee; Roh, Kwang Chul; Kim, Sumi; Choi, Sua; Woo, Jong Seok; Kim, Ho Young et al. · Nat Commun · 2013

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The dispersant-free fabrication of highly conducting pastes based on organic solvents with nanocarbon materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoplatelets has been hindered by severe agglomeration. Here we report a straightforward method for fabricating nanocarbon suspensions with >10% weight concentrations in absence of organic dispersants. The method involves introducing supramolecular quadruple hydrogen-bonding motifs into the nanocarbon materials without sacrificing the electrical conductivity. Printed films of these materials show high electrical conductivity of ~500,000 S m(-1) by hybridization with 5 vol% silver nanowires. In addition, the printed nanocarbon electrodes provide high-performance alternatives to the platinum catalytic electrodes commonly used in dye-sensitized solar cells and electrochemical electrodes in supercapacitors. The judicious use of supramolecular interactions allows fabrication of printable, spinnable and chemically compatible conducting pastes with high-quality nanocarbon materials, useful in flexible electronics and textile electronics.