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Letter

Flexible, Stretchable, Transparent Carbon Nanotube Thin Film Loudspeakers

Lin Xiao^§^†, Zhuo Chen^§^†, Chen Feng^†, Liang Liu^†, Zai-Qiao Bai^‡, Yang Wang^†, Li Qian^†, Yuying Zhang^†, Qunqing Li^†, Kaili Jiang*^† and Shoushan Fan*^†

Department of Physics & Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Centre, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, Peopleʼs Republic of China, and Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, Peopleʼs Republic of China

Nano Lett., 2008, 8 (12), pp 4539–4545

DOI: 10.1021/nl802750z

Publication Date (Web): October 29, 2008

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: JiangKL@tsinghua.edu.cn; fss-dmp@tsinghua.edu.cn., §

These authors contributed equally to this work.

, †

Tsinghua University.

, ‡

Beijing Normal University.

Section:

Electric Phenomena

Abstract

We found that very thin carbon nanotube films, once fed by sound frequency electric currents, could emit loud sounds. This phenomenon could be attributed to a thermoacoustic effect. The ultra small heat capacity per unit area of carbon nanotube thin films leads to a wide frequency response range and a high sound pressure level. On the basis of this finding, we made practical carbon nanotube thin film loudspeakers, which possess the merits of nanometer thickness and are transparent, flexible, stretchable, and magnet-free. Such a single-element thin film loudspeaker can be tailored into any shape and size, freestanding or on any insulating surfaces, which could open up new applications of and approaches to manufacturing loudspeakers and other acoustic devices.

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