Carbon Nanotube Soldering with Gold Nanoink by the Fountain-Pen Technique

A novel method for soldering carbon nanotubes on electronic pads is presented. We deposited a gold nanoparticle suspension (nanoink) film on the contact area between the carbon nanotube and metal pad employing the fountain-pen principle. The nanoink is deposited by using capillary tubes that have been pulled into micro pipettes with outer diameters of 2-3 μm. The nanoink pattern was then annealed on a hotplate, so that good conductance of the contact could be achieved. The metal pads were prepared by utilizing the standard microfabrication technology. The carbon nanotubes were deposited across the two metal pads by employing the principle of dielectrophoresis.