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The use of sequential catalytic growth (SCG) to encapsulate iron, nickel-iron and iron-cobalt phosphide catalyst nanoparticles periodically along the entire lengths of carbon nanotubes is demonstrated. The results show that the SCG mechanism can be used to grow carbon nanotubes that contain regularly spaced room-temperature-ferromagnetic nanoparticles.

Discrete nickel catalyst nanoparticles have been used to grow isolated single-walled carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition. Atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and micro-Raman spectroscopy have been used to characterize the as-grown, isolated nanotubes.

A study finds that sequential catalytic growth provides an efficient tool for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes periodically inserted with catalyst nanoparticles. The influence of the different parameters on the formation of the active catalyst particles and the matchstick nanotubes is discussed.