Optical anisotropy in electroactively elongated single-walled carbon nanotubes agglomerates

Abstract

A thin layer of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) exhibiting optical anisotropy is prepared by electroactively elongating SWCNT agglomerates. SWCNTs are doped into a reactive mesogen (RM) solution, and the composite solution is spin-coated on an interdigitated-electrode substrate. The spherical shaped SWCNT agglomerates observed in the solution of thin layers are electroactively elongated and aligned along the direction of the external electric field. After elongating the SWCNT agglomerates, the transparency of RM-SWCNT thin composite layers increases by about 14%. In addition, the elongated SWCNT agglomerates present significant optical anisotropy such that an incident light with a polarization direction parallel and perpendicular to the elongated direction of SWCNTs is absorbed and transmitted, respectively. The electroactively elongating strategy adopted to realize the optical anisotropy of SWCNT agglomerates suggests a new way to fabricate an optically anisotropic SWCNT thin layer.