Ionic Dopant-Encapsulating Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Films with Metal-Like Electrical Conductivity.

Heavy doping is inevitable for utilizing single-walled carbon nanotubes for wiring. However, the electrical conductivity of their films is currently as low as one tenth of the films made from typical metal pastes. Herein we report on metal-comparable electrical conductivity from single-walled carbon nanotube network films. We use ionic liquids and crown ether complexes for p-type and n-type doping, respectively. The encapsulation of counterions into carbon nanotubes promotes the conductivities in the range of 7000 S cm-1 , approximately ten times larger than those of undoped films.