Realization of stable and homogenous carbon nanotubes dispersion as ink for radio frequency identification applications

M Nicolas Bougot, Thi My Dung Dang, Nguyen Ngan Le and Mau Chien Dang

Abstract

The use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in radio frequency identification (RFID) applications offers a very large range of possibilities to exploit the incredible properties of CNTs. However, due to their entanglement state, their size and the different interacting forces between nanotubes bundles present at nanometric scale, CNTs debundling is very hard to achieve, requiring specific equipment and chemicals. Our purpose was to reduce as small as possible CNTs bundles, in order to realize ink to print on an RFID antenna. The size of the head printer nozzles required very small particles, about a few micrometers, in order to be able to print on the sensitive position of the antenna. To reduce the size of the bundles and stabilize the solution, an ultrasonic horn with an ultrasonic bath were combined as mechanical stress for CNT dispersion, and some chemicals such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)—a surfactant, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP)—a solvent, or chitosan were used to meet our requirements