Room temperature transfer of carbon nanotubes on flexible substrate

In this paper we report a novel method of transferring thermally grown vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs) onto flexible substrates at room temperature with a single-step process. The transfer process is carried out by placing the CNT forests upside down on a double sided thermal release adhesive tape and peeling off the silicon substrate. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to observe the transfer results. Also a second transfer using the same method but a thermal tape with higher release temperature is repeated on the as-transferred CNTs forests. The results show that this method is able to provide a novel process for transferring CNT forests at room temperature. This process will help to bring close the low cost fabrication of vertically aligned CNT structures for electronics.