Patent ID: 8002958

Claim:
A sequential electrophoretic deposition method of fabricating carbon nanotube-based electron field emission cathodes, the method comprising: forming multiple electrophoretic baths, wherein the multiple electrophoretic baths comprise a first bath and a second bath, wherein the first bath is a suspension comprising an adhesion promoting material and a charger in a liquid medium, wherein the adhesion promoting material is selected from the group consisting of titanium, iron, lead, tin, cobalt, nickel, tantalum, tungsten, niobium, zirconium, vanadium, chromium, hafnium, poly(vinyl butyral-co vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) and poly(vinylidene fluoride), and the second bath is a suspension comprising carbon nanotubes and the charger in a mixture of alcohol and water; immersing a plurality of electrodes in the first bath, wherein at least one of the electrodes comprises a field emission cathode substrate; electrophoretically depositing a layer of the adhesion promoting material with a pre-determined thickness onto an exposed area of a surface of the cathode substrate; removing the plurality of electrodes from the first bath and immersing the plurality of electrodes in the second bath; electrophoretically depositing a composite film including the carbon nanotubes on the exposed area of the surface of the cathode substrate; optionally repeating the steps of immersing and electrophoretically depositing in the first bath and the second bath; and annealing the field emission cathode substrate with the deposited composite film at a pre-determined temperature to activate the adhesion-promoting material such that it bonds with the carbon nanotubes and the substrate.