Single-walled nanotubes by the pyrolysis of acetylene-organometallic mixtures

Gas-phase pyrolysis of acetylene along with a metallocene or with a binary mixture of metallocenes in flowing Ar or Ar + H2 at 1100°C yields single-walled carbon nanotubes. Pyrolysis of Fe(CO)5-acetylene mixtures in Ar at 1100°C also gives single-walled nanotubes. The diameter of the nanotubes is generally around 1 nm, showing thereby that on pyrolysis under the dilute conditions employed, the organometallic precursors give rise to very fine metal particles essential for the formation of such nanotubes.