Electrospinning of Carbon Nanotube Inks

An amount of 0.032 g of Elicarb MWNT, supplied by Thomas Swan Ltd., was added to 10 ml of distilled water that contained 0.1 g of dodecylbenzenesulfonate as a surfactant. The mixture was sonicated for 2 hours. After this, 40 ml of 12% polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in water was then added. The mixture was then subjected to shear mixing at 15,000 rpm for 1 hour. The suspension had a viscosity of 48 mPa-s. 

The resultant ink was electrospun from an 18 gauge steel needle at a distance of 150 mm from the ground collector, which was a multiple wire drum rotating at 2 rpm. The electrospinning took place under a potential of 20 kV, while the MWNT - PVA ink was fed by a syringe pump at a constant flow rate of 4 ml/h. After 20 min of electrospinning, a fibrous mat of 300 x 810 mm was fabricated and left to dry for 24 hours. 

The carbon nanotube - PEDOTrPSS ink was deposited as printed drops on three different substrates Melinex, paper and cardboard. The printed drops on paper and 

Groenendaal, F.Jonas, D.Freitag and H. Pielartzik, Advanced Materials, 

Caribbean Conference on Devices, Circuits and Systems, Cancun, Mexico, 2008, p.165. 

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