A binder material, inorganic polymer, is used to formulate carbon nanotube pastes. This material can be cured at 200 DEG C and has a thermal-stability up to 500 DEG C. Low out-gasing of this binder material makes it a good candidate for long life field emission devices. Due to better adhesion with this binder material, a strong adhesive peelable polymer from liquid form can be applied on the CNT cathode to achieve a uniform activation with even contact and pressure on the surface. The peelable polymer films may be used both as an activation layer and a mask layer to fabricate high-resolution patterned carbon nanotube cathodes for field emission devices using lithographic processes.