Self-suspended carbon nanotube/polyimide composite film with improved photothermal properties

Self-suspended polyimide (PI) composite films were fabricated. Their diameter and thickness were 2.5 in. and 260 nm, respectively. A high ratio of diameter to thickness of 2.4 × 105 was obtained. The multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were filled into PI to improve the optical absorption and the photothermal response. By using the N-methyl pyrrolidone solvent for both MWCNTs and poly(amic acid), a homogeneous dispersion of MWCNTs with up to 15% content was obtained. Under the thermal treatment of 300 °C, the composite films were successfully synthesized, which was proved by the measurements of Fourier transform infrared spectrum and x-ray diffraction. Compared with the pure PI film, the optical absorption of the composite films at 532 nm wavelength increased from 10% to 28%. The steady and transient photothermal properties of the composite films were investigated. In the steady state, a temperature rise of 145 °C was obtained under 0.7 W/cm2 illuminating laser power density. The temperature increased by 29 times compared with that of the pure PI film. The corresponding photothermal conversion efficiency improved to 70.8%. In the transient state, the photothermal response time was 7.5 ms, which was only half that of the pure PI film. The excellent photothermal properties of these self-suspended MWCNT/PI composite films highlight their potential applications in micro- and nanoscale devices for photo detection and thermal imaging.