The production of a flexible electroluminescent device on polyethylene terephthalate films using transparent conducting carbon nanotube electrode

An inorganic electroluminescent (EL) device on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate and its properties were investigated. The transparent conducting film (TCF) made from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (CNT-TCF) was employed in the flexible EL device. CNT-TCF was formed by filtration of CNT solution and was transferred to the PET film. It was found that the brightness of the inorganic EL device was strongly dependent on the quality of the CNT composite films. After a 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane treatment of the PET substrate, CNTs uniformly were dispersed and showed a good adhesion to the substrate, and the resulting EL device showed better performance. The flexible EL device showed the brightness of 96.8 cd/m2 at 28 kHz and 50 V.