Carbon nanotube networks patterned from aqueous solutions of latex bead carriers

Patterning arrays of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is an important technological step for a range of applications of these materials in electronics, optics, electrochemistry and biosensing. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of conductive networks of SWCNTs with controlled porosity on the mesoscopic scale by two dimensional assembly, from aqueous solutions, of monodisperse polystyrene (PS) beads carrying SWCNTs at their surface. SWCNTs are adsorbed onto the bead surface by non covalent hydrophobic interactions. Once the PS beads self-organize into ordered arrays, they are removed by an organic solvent, yielding a connected SWCNTs network that retains the geometrical structure of the bead assembly. The electrical properties of these ordered SWCNTs arrays exhibit a Mott-conducting behavior with RT conductivity of 100 S cm21.