Improved field emission by liquid elastomer modification of screen‐printed CNT film morphology

Abstract The effect of improvement on the surface morphology of screen‐printed carbon nanotube (CNT) films was studied by using the optically clear poly‐dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer for surface treatment. After the PDMS activation treatment was applied to the diode‐type CNT cathode, the entangled carbon nanotube (CNT) bundles were broken up into individual free standing nanotubes to remarkably improve the field‐emission characteristics over the as‐deposited CNT film. Also, the cathode film morphology of a top gated triode‐type structure can be treated by using the proposed surface treatment technique, which is a low‐cost process, simple process. The relative uniform emission image showed high brightness with a high anode current. This result shows the possibility of using this technique for surface treatment of large‐size field emission displays (FEDs) in the future.