Patent ID: 8252115

Claim:
An apparatus for growing nanotubes from one or more specific isotopes of one or more elements selected from among Carbon, Nitrogen, Boron, Titanium, Silicon, Germanium, Aluminum and Gallium, comprising: a chamber; a membrane that separates the chamber into an implantation region and a growth region; one or more catalysts supported by the membrane, said catalyst having a first portion of catalyst surface facing the implantation region and an opposing second portion of catalyst surface directly exposed to the growth region; an ion source configured to generate ions from one or more elements, said ions including a plurality of different isotopes or unique molecular combinations of two or more different isotopes from at least one of the selected elements; and a selection filter configured to direct a subset of the ions towards the membrane resulting in ion implantation through the first portion of catalyst surface into the catalyst, and growth from the opposing second portion of catalyst surface of nanotubes composed of at least one isotope in the subset.