Enhanced field emission from printed carbon nanotubes by mechanical surface modification

A method is presented where the morphology of screen printed carbon nanotube pastes is modified using an adhesive tape. In this way, the organic matrix material is preferentially removed leaving an optimal emitter surface of sparsely distributed and well-aligned carbon nanotubes. From these emitter surfaces, homogeneous emission was observed with emitter site densities of at least ${10}^4\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{emitters cm}}^{\text{−2}}$ and extracted current densities over $\text{500\hspace{0.17em}}{\mathrm{mA cm}}^{\text{−2}}.$