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Self-organised ferromagnetic nanowires encapsulated by multiwalled carbon nanotubes produced by CVD methods based on the thermal decomposition of ferrocene commonly contain the elemental phases: α-Fe, γ-Fe, and the carbide Fe 3 C. A continuous α-Fe nanowire and control of nanowire and nanotube length and diameter are desirable. High α-Fe nanowire content has been achieved through synthesis temperature modification, vapour flow-rate, and post-synthesis heat treatment. Length and diameter are intimately related to the self-organisational growth processes; reported approaches include regulation of the vapour supply to minimise dispersion in the nucleation process and introduction of other growth-modifying precursor elements. High vapour flow-rate produces downstream fluctuation resulting in discontinuous nanowires and diameter dispersion, or external decoration with spherical particles, results from rapid evaporation of the ferrocene precursor. We report a low vapour flow-rate and constant evaporation temperature method which achieves continuous α-Fe nanowires on the same scale as the nanotube for lengths >10 μm without the necessity of post-synthesis heat-treatment or introduction of other precursor elements. The low vapour flow-rate regime has the advantage of sustaining the intrinsic temperature gradient at the tip of the forming structure which drives the vapour feedstock to the growth front to guarantee continuous nanowire formation.

A simple wet chemical method involving only sonication in aqueous GdCl3 solution was used for surface functionalization of iron-filled multiwalled carbon nanotubes with gadolinium. Functional groups on the sidewalls produced by the sonication provide active nucleation sites for the loading of Gd3+ ions. Characterization by EPR, EELS, and HRTEM confirmed the presence of Gd3+ ions on the sidewall surface. The room temperature ferromagnetic properties of the encapsulated iron nanowire, saturation magnetization of 40 emu/g and coercivity 600 Oe, were maintained after surface functionalization. Heating functionality in an alternating applied magnetic field was quantified through the measurement of specific absorption rate: 50 W/gFe at magnetic field strength 8 kA/m and frequency of 696 kHz. These results point to candidacy for dual-functioning MRI imaging and magnetic hyperthermia structures for cancer therapy.

Carbon nanotubes filled with continuous crystalline nanowires of nanometre-scale diameter and micrometre-scale length of the ferromagnetic phase α-Fe were produced with a new chemical vapour deposition method. We report a new two-stage approach, a perturbed-vapour method of synthesis followed by a post-synthesis heat treatment that produces multiwall carbon nanotubes filled with at least 19 micrometre-length nanowires of α-Fe. Previously reported synthesis routes use steady-state conditions to guarantee nanowire continuity but result only in small (less than one-micrometre length) nanowires comprising isolated or mixed phases of either α-Fe, Fe 3 C, or γ-Fe. Here flower-like clusters of carbon nanotubes continuously filled with α-Fe were produced by perturbation of a laminar ferrocene (Fe(C 5 H 5 ) 2 ) vapour flow in a conventional horizontal chemical vapour deposition reactor. Single-phase filling was achieved by a post-synthesis annealing at 500 °C for 15 h in Ar flow. Electron microscopy studies revealed the high quality of the structural integrity of both nanotubes and encapsulated nanowires. These nanostructures possess a high coercivity of 580 Oe and a very high saturation magnetization of 189.5 emu/g comparable with bulk α-Fe.

We report a new chemical vapor synthesis method that exploits random fluctuations in the viscous boundary layer between a laminar vapor flow and a surface to yield a not previously observed product: radial ferromagnetically filled-carbon-nanotube structures departing from a central particle. The filling of the nanotube capillary is continuous over a scale much greater than that which can be achieved by conventional CVD. This is a simple method which does not require ultra-fine control of process parameters or highly-engineered reactor components in which a single, self-organized, ordered product is formed in randomly fluctuating vapor in the boundary layer by vapor-, liquid-, solid-phase self-organization. These fluctuations create the thermodynamic conditions for formation of the central particle in the vapor which in turn defines the spherically symmetric diffusion gradient that initiates the radial growth. The subsequent radial growth is driven by the supply of vapor feedstock by local diffusion gradients created by endothermic graphitic carbon formation at the vapor-facing tips of the individual nanotubes and is halted by contact with the surface. The radial structures are the dominant product and the reaction conditions are self-sustaining. We argue that the method has potential for scalable production of metal-carbon nanostructures with other unusual morphologies.

The electronic and optical properties of nitrogen doped tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C:N) are compared with those of a new form of carbon ta-C film in which nanotube regions are included (ta-C:(NT)). It is found that nanotubes in ta-C inhibit the N doping effect in ta-C and leads to a reduction in conductivity. The results point to the nanotube regions acting as electronically isolated graphitic regions in ta-C. The refractive index in ta-C:(NT) is found to have the opposite dependency on wavelength to that of ta-C. It is proposed that the refractive index can be used as a signature for the presence of nanotubes and other large graphitic regions in ta-C.