Thin films of metallic carbon nanotubes prepared by dielectrophoresis

Dielectrophoretic separation of metallic carbon nanotubes from semiconducting carbon nanotubes is developing towards a bulk-separation method, which allows, for the first time, the production of thin films of only metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes on a transparent quartz-glass substrate (see figure). Larger quantities of nanotubes are processed without sacrificing the intrinsic high quality of the process-a development that is promising for the development of nanotube-based electronic-device applications.