Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been significantly used for the field emitters for display applications. However, the lifetime of CNT emitters which are formed by screen printing technique is not guaranteed yet, because the constituents in CNT paste affect the lifetime of CNTs. The CNT pastes for screen printing are normally composed of organic vehicles (nitro cellulose, ethyl cellulose, etc) and additives (glass frits, indium tin oxide (ITO), etc) with CNTs. In this study, the effects of constituents in CNT pastes on the lifetime and emission characteristics of CNTs were investigated by thermal and electrical analysis. Use of glass frits worsened the lifetime and electron emission of CNTs. However, an addition of ITO to CNT paste rather improved the lifetime of CNTs. Degradation of CNTs was small when nitro cellulose was used in CNT paste as an organic vehicle.
