Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are attractive materials and potential alternatives to transparent (inorganic) oxide semiconductors (TOSs) that are employed in a variety of device architectures in display and optoelectronics applications. Transparent conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) has enjoyed widespread use for the past three decades which can be readily obtained on glass and although even on plastics, the inherent brittleness of ITO severely limits film flexibility.  We describe an extremely simple method by which one can obtain strongly adherent thin films of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on flexible, transparent substrates such as polyethylene napthalate (PEN).  In the present investigation, we purified the commercially available arc discharged SWNTs by dry oxidation and acid treatments and used to fabricate films on UV-O₃ treated PEN.  We obtained highly transparent (>83 %@550nm) with robust flexibility and low sheet resistance (130 Ω/□) films from the dispersed SWNTs using a conventional spin coating method after effective wetting by post treatment. The films can be bent while retaining electrical properties without sacrificing their optical transparency.  The hardness/adhesion test of the SWNTs on flexible PEN after passing laboratory scotch tape analysis reveals variation in sheet resistance 5-10 Ω/□ (<10%) with no remarkable change in optical transmittance.  The purity, morphology and effect of post treatment on films were characterized by thermogravimetry (TG), micro Raman, Fourier Transform infrared (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM).  This approach provides a systematic way of fabrication films with reasonable film performance compared to other related works.  The low sheet resistance can meet the criteria of transparent conducting films for touch screen applications which require ~500 Ω/□ for 85% optical transmittance and may replace the conventional ITO with high flexibility. 

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