In this study, in order to easily provide functional groups on the surface of carbon nanotubes, dual structural multiwalled carbon nanotubes which have crystalline graphite and turbostratic carbon wall were synthesized by modified vertical thermal decomposition method. Synthesized dual structural MWCNTs were characterized by FE-SEM, TGA, HR-TEM, Raman spectroscopy and BET specific surface area analyzer. The average innermost and outermost diameters of the synthesized nanotubes were around 45 and 75 nm, respectively. The large empty inner space and the presence of graphitic carbons on the surface may open potential applications for gas storage and collection of hazardous materials.

Amorphous carbon nanotubes were synthesized by a reaction of benzene, ferrocene and Na mixture in a small autoclave at temperatures as low as . The resulting carbon nanotubes were short and straight, but their inner hole was filled with residual products. The addition of quartz to the reacting mixture considerably promoted the formation of carbon nanotubes. A careful examination of powder structure suggested that the nanotubes in this process were mainly formed by surface diffusion of carbon atoms at the surface of solid catalytic particles, not by VLS(vapor-liquid-solid) mechanism.

In this study, bottom-up type powder processing and top-down type SPD (severe plastic deformation) approaches were combined in order to achieve full density of Carbon nanotube (CNT)/metal matrix composites with superior mechanical properties by improved particle bonding and least grain growth, which were considered as a bottle neck of the bottom-up method using the conventional powder metallurgy of compaction and sintering. ECAP (equal channel angular pressing), the most promising method in SPD, was used for the CNT/Cu powder consolidation. The powder ECAP processing with 1, 2, 4 and 8 route C passes was conducted at room temperature.

In-situ processing route was adopted to disperse carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into powders homogeneously. The composite powders with homogeneous dispersion of CNTs could be synthesized by a catalytic route for in-situ formation of CNTs on nano-sized Fe dispersed powders. CNTs/Fe/ nanopowders were densified by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The hardness and bending strength as well as electrical conductivity increased with increasing sintering temperature. However, the electrical conductivity of the composites sintered at above showed decreased value with increasing sintering temperature due to the oxidation of CNTs

An optimum route to synthesize composite powders with homogeneous dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was investigated. nanocomposite powders were fabricated by thermal chemical vapor deposition of gas over nanocomposite catalyst prepared by selective reduction of metal powders. The FT-Raman spectroscopy analysis revealed that the CNTs have single- and multi-walled structure. The CNTs with the diameter of 25-43 nm were homogeneously distributed in the powders, and their characteristics were strongly affected by a kind of metal catalyst and catalyst size. The experimental results show that the composite powder with required size and dispersion of CNTs can be realized by control of synthesis condition

Aligned multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were synthesized through the catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbons in a quartz tube reactor. In this study, we investigated the influence of gas flow rate of feedstock on the structure and growth rate of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes produced by the floating catalyst method. As the flow rate of feedstock increased, the nanotube diameter became smaller and the length became longer. Although the growth rate also increased with the raise of flow rate, the optimum flow rate of feedstock existed for the crystallinity of carbon nanotubes.

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were prepared by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) using various combination of binary catalysts and methane precursor. The maximum yield (10.3 %) of CNTs was obtained using a methane-hydrogen-nitrogen mixture with volume ratio of 1:1:2 at 1000 W of microwave power. As the microwave power increased up to 1000 W, the deposition yield of CNTs raised from 4.1 % to 10. 3 %. However, the prepared CNTs at 800 W showed the more crystalline structure than those prepared at 1000 W. The prepared CNTs over different binary catalysts had various structural conformations such as aligned cylinder, bamboo, and nanofibers. The Id/Ig value of CNTs overFe-Fe/Al2O3, Co-Co/Al2O3, and Co-Cu/Al2O3 were in the range of 0.89~0.93. Among the various binary catalysts used, Fe-Co./Al2O3 showed the highest yield.

The synthetic behaviors of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by Fe/MgO catalysts were investigated in 0~90 wt.% range of MgO mixture ratios by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) process. The CNTs were synthesized with 40 minutes of synthetic time, and 923 K of synthetic temperature using 0.1 L/min of ethylene gas and 1.0 L/min of hydrogen gas as synthetic and carrier gas, respectively. As the increase of synthetic temperatures and times, the diameters of CNTs become thicker. The carbon yield showed in a parabolic curve as MgO content increased and the maximum carbon yield was obtained at 30 wt.% of MgO. There were no obvious changes in the diameters of CNTs respect to the change of MgO content. Fe/MgO CNTs showed good crystalinity by High Resolution Transmission Electron microscope (HR-TEM) analysis. The behaviors of Fe/MgO CNTs have a tendency of depending on synthetic time and temperature rather than MgO content.

Although the structure of carbon nanotubes is important factor characterizing its properties, it is very difficult to control the structure of carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and to predict the range of their diameter, which is the primary factor of MWNTs' physical properties. We tried to control the diameter of MWNTsby governing the feed injection temperature of floating catalyst method. The structure of MWNTs was influenced by the phase change of ferrocene fed as the catalyst,. The carbon nanotubes were very narrow at injection temperatures close to the sublimation pt. of ferrocene, in which most MWNTs had diameters in the range of 20~30 nm. At injection temperatures between the boiling pt. and melting pt. of ferrocene, the diameters became larger and had broad distribution. However, at injection temperatures higher than the boiling pt., the diameters became narrow again and had very uniform distribution.

The effect of compositions of Al2O3 in the mixed Fe/Al2O3 catalysts on the synthetic behaviors of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) process was investigated in wide range of the mixture ratios of support materials. CNTs were synthesized with Fe/Al2O3 catalysis under the condition of 40 min in synthetic time, and 923 K of synthetic temperature using C2H4 and H2 as synthetic and carrier gas, respectively. The carbon yield with the content of Al2O3 showed in a parabolic curve and the maximum carbon yield was 40 wt.% of Al2O3. As the mixture ratio of Al2O3 increased, decreasing tendency was observed in the diameter of CNTs. Specific surface areas of CNTs were increased with the increase of the mixture ratio of Al2O3.

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were prepared by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) using various combination of binary catalysts with four transition metals such as Fe, Co, Cu, and Ni. In the preparation of CNTs from acetylene precursor by thermal CVD, the CNTs with very high yield of 43.6 % was produced over Fe-Co/Al2O3. The highest yield of CNTs was obtained with the catalyst reduced for 3 hr and the yield was decreased with increasing reduction time to 5 hr, due to the formation of FeAl2O4 metal-aluminate. On the other hand, the CNTs prepared by acethylene plasma CVD had more straight, smaller diameter, and larger aspect ratio(L/D) than those prepared by thermal CVD, although their yield had lower value of 27.7%. The degree of graphitization of CNTs measured by Id/Ig value and thermal degradation temperature were 1.04 and 602℃, respectively.