Patent ID: 7018606

Claim:
A method for obtaining inorganic fullerene-like nanostructures, the method comprising evaporation of a metal oxide at predetermined temperature conditions, wherein the metal oxide is MoO 3 or WO 3 , reduction of the evaporated metal oxide by a first reacting agent being hydrogen gas to obtain a suboxide of said metal, and interaction of the suboxide with at least one second reacting agent being a volatile sulfur or selenium compound or mixtures thereof, and being characterized in that: said evaporation occurs prior to the metal oxide arrival to a reacting zone, where the reduction and the interaction occur, and a flow of the evaporated metal oxide is driven from its initial location inside a reactor towards the reacting zone by means of an inert carrier; a flow of the first reacting agent and the at least one second reacting agent in the gas phase is supplied into the reacting zone, such that the agents' flow meets the evaporated metal oxide flow while in an opposite upward/downward direction with respect to the reacting zone, thereby causing the first reacting agent interaction with the evaporated metal oxide prior to that of the at least one second reacting agent, the interaction between the evaporated metal oxide and the first reacting agent causing reduction of the evaporated metal oxide into metal suboxide nanoparticles in the gas phase resulting in condensation of the suboxide nanoparticles, and the interaction between said at least one second reacting agent and the condensing metal suboxide nanoparticles causing formation of substantially pure phase of inorganic fullerene-like nanostructures.