Preparation of the Printed Carbon Nanotubes Cold Cathode in Field Emission Display and Post-Treatment Technique Using Reactive Ion Etching

摘要

Printable carbon nanotubes (CNTs) cathode slurry was prepared by a reactive ion etching (RIE) post-treatment technique with CNTs, organic vehicles and inorganic binder, i.e., silicon dioxide (SiO_2) sol as the raw materials. RIE treatment was introduced to improve field emission characteristics of the CNTs cold cathode screen-printed by the new slurry. The results showed that the RIE treatment could effectively remove parts of inorganic vehicle (i.e., SiO_2) layer of the cathode surface and expose plentiful CNTs on the cathode. This would enable the as-prepared cathode to be novel electron emitter and to improve its field emission characteristics and uniformity of the cathode. The effect of RIE treatment conditions on the structural characteristics of the CNTs cold cathode was investigated and field emission enhancement mechanism was proposed.