Patent ID: 8481158

Claim:
An aggregate of carbon-based microstructures in which carbon nanotubes are assembled together, wherein the carbon nanotubes are aligned in one direction, and are assembled (i) along the direction of alignment so as to form a rope-like structure having a length of not shorter than 20 cm by bundling filamentous structures, each of which is formed by bundling the carbon nanotubes, and (ii) in a direction orthogonal to the direction of alignment so as to form a sheet-like structure, the carbon nanotubes are surrounded by an amorphous carbon layer whose thickness is no greater than 10% of a diameter of the carbon nanotubes, the carbon nanotubes each have a diameter of 10 nm through 20 nm, the carbon nanotubes are formed by a catalyst chemical vapor deposition method, using gas in which a proportion of concentration of a source gas for forming the carbon nanotubes is no less than 23% of a total concentration, and the aggregate has a Young's modulus of not less than 0.8 TPa.