Activation-free printed carbon nanotube field emitters.

When a carbon nanotube paste is formulated based on highly functional hyperbranched polymers such as dipentaerythritol hexaacrylate, the volume shrinkage during thermal curing builds up internal stress that generates microcrack patterns on the printed surface. The nanotubes exposed in the cracks emit electrons successfully at such an extremely low electric field as 0.5 V µm − 1, and reach 25.5 mA cm − 2 of current density at 2 Vµm − 1 from an optimized paste concerning mainly the size and spatial uniformity of the crack. In addition to the superior field emission properties with low manufacturing cost, this activation-free technology can provide a minimized nanohazard in the device fabrication process, compared to those conventional activation technologies developing serious nanoflakes by using destructive methods.