Residue-Free Transfer of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays Using Thin ice Film

This paper reports an ice-assisted, large-area, adhesive-free process for transferring vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) arrays. Here, we controlled the thickness of an ice layer, as a binding layer, on an acceptor substrate through the condensation and freezing of atmospheric moisture, providing the versatile transfer method of the VACNT arrays. The introduced vapor freezing method allows the VACNT arrays to conformally transfer onto an acceptor substrate without the capillary-induced collapse of the VACNT. As a result, we transferred centimeter-scale VACNT onto diverse acceptor substrates, while maintaining the vertically aligned structure without noticeable capillary formed or buckled bundles. Also, the proposed method enabled the transfer of micro-scale patterned CNT arrays up to 100 μm. Furthermore, the transferred VACNT onto the interdigitated electrodes has a low contact resistance with ohmic contact, providing a strategy to integrate CNT arrays into various applications without high-temperature processes.