Onion-like carbon and carbon nanotube film antennas

Abstract

In this paper, radiating dipole antennas have been fabricated from rolled carbon films, which are typically used for supercapacitor electrodes. Return loss and radiation pattern measurements for onion-like carbon (OLC) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) antenna samples are presented and compared to a copper standard. The OLC antenna's radiation pattern measurements show a peak gain of −1.48 dBi, just less than 3 dB of a copper dipole antenna. Compared to antennas made from MWCNT films, the OLC samples show better radiation performance despite a lower measured conductivity.