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Polarity control in semiconducting single-walled carbon-nanotube field-effect transistors (s-SWNT FETs) is important to promote their application in logic devices. The methods to turn the intrinsically ambipolar s-SWNT FETs into unipolar devices that have been proposed until now require extra fabrication steps that make preparation longer and more complex. It is demonstrated that by starting from a highly purified ink of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes sorted by a conjugated polymer, and mixing them with additives, it is possible to achieve unipolar charge transport. The three additives used are benzyl viologen (BV), 4-(2,3-dihydro-1,3-dimethyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)-N,N-dimethylbenzenamine (N-DMBI), which give rise to n-type field-effect transistors, and 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F-4-TCNQ) which gives rise to p-type transistors. BV and N-DMBI transform the s-SWNTs transistors from ambipolar with mobility of the order of 0.7 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) to n-type with mobility up to 5 cm(2) V-1 s(-1). F-4-TCNQ transform the ambipolar transistors in p-type with mobility up to 16 cm(2) V-1 s(-1).

In the past years, high-quality semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (s-SWCNT) inks obtained by conjugated polymer wrapping using toluene as solvent have been used for the fabrication of high-performance field-effect transistors. Charge-carrier mobilities up to 50 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) and on/off ratios above 10(8) have been reported for devices based on networks of s-SWCNT. However, devices fabricated from inks that are only a few weeks old generally show a marked decrease in performance, indicating the limited shelf life of toluene-based inks. The use of o-xylene as applicator solvent to obtain high quality and very stable s-SWCNT inks is reported. The charge carrier mobility of field-effect transistors fabricated with this new ink show a twofold increase in magnitude compared to devices prepared from a toluene solution. More importantly, the device-to-device performance shows improved reproducibility, which is ascribed to the higher degree of homogeneity of the s-SWCNT network deposited from o-xylene with respect to the one from toluene. Finally, the o-xylene inks maintain their initial properties for longer than one year. This very long shelf life is an important pre-condition for the industrial use of s-SWCNT inks.

A demonstration of ambipolar transistors of polymer-wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) provides an opportunity to scrutinize transport mechanism of electrons and holes in this system. Anomalous temperature-dependent nonlinear transport behavior is observed in large diameter SWNTs. This suggests an interplay between the intrinsic transport of individual tubes and the percolative network properties, highlighting the nature of polymer-wrapped SWNTs as a complex hybrid material.