Patent ID: 6955800

Claim:
A process for producing carbon nanotubes, comprising: feeding catalytic particles into a reactor wherein the catalytic particles comprise a support material and a catalytic material; reducing the catalytic particles by exposing the catalytic particles to reducing conditions forming reduced catalytic particles; catalytically forming carbon nanotubes by exposing the reduced catalytic particles to a carbon-containing gas for a duration of time sufficient to cause catalytic production of carbon nanotubes thereby forming reacted catalytic particles bearing the carbon nanotubes; cooling the reacted catalytic particles; removing amorphous carbon deposited on the reacted catalytic particles thereby forming semi-purified catalytic particles; treating the semi-purified catalytic particles to separate the support material from the catalytic material; treating the catalytic material to separate the carbon nanotubes from the catalytic material; and recycling the catalytic material to form regenerated catalytic particles.