Highly transparent and flexible field electron emitters based on hybrid carbon nanostructure

We demonstrate a unique strategy to fabricate highly transparent and flexible field electron emitters (FEEs) based on combined carbon nanostructures, i.e., conical nanocarbon structures (CNCSs) and single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The combined structure was prepared by spray coating of 1,2‐dichloroethane (DCE) dispersed SWNTs onto neon ion (Ne⁺) irradiation induced CNCSs on nafion substrate. The field emission (FE) property of SWCNTs on both flat nafion and CNCSs surfaces increased with increasing the SWCNTs amount. The best FE result was attained for the highest amount of SWCNTs on the CNCSs substrate. This kind of collective structures is found to be effective emitters on transparent and flexible ion‐irradiated nafion substrate. Moreover, the combined carbon nanostructures showed improved transparency and emission performance compared to the individual nanostructures. The FE properties of 0.5 ml SWCNTs solution on CNCSs surfaces were equal to those of 1.5 ml SWCNTs solution on flat nafion surface. The hybrid structure based emitters (CNCSs and SWCNTs) produced by this method are lower‐cost cathode materials than hybrid structures of SWCNTs and flat nafion. Thus the combined nanostructures of SWCNTs/CNCSs might have huge prospects for the fabrication of efficient transparent and flexible FEEs and their broad application in next‐generation portable display devices. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)