Carbon Nanotube Film Electrodes with Acrylic Additives: Blocking Electrochemical Charge Transfer Reactions

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) processed into conductive films by liquid phase deposition technologies reveal increasing interest as electrode components in electrochemical device platforms for sensing and energy storage applications. In this work we show that the addition of acrylic latex to water-based CNT inks not only favors the fabrication of stable and robust flexible electrodes on plastic substrates but, moreover, sensitively enables the control of their electrical and electrochemical transport properties. Importantly, within a given concentration range, the acrylic additive in the films, being used as working electrodes, effectively blocks undesired faradaic transfer reactions across the electrode–electrolyte interface while maintaining their capacitance response as probed in a three-electrode electrochemical device configuration. Our results suggest a valuable strategy to enhance the chemical stability of CNT film electrodes and to suppress non-specific parasitic electrochemical reactions of relevance to electroanalytical and energy storage applications.