Patent ID: 7767615

Claim:
A method for producing aligned carbon nanostructures comprising: (a) providing (i) finely divided substrate particles having substantially smooth faces with radii of curvature of more than 1 μm and of length and breadth between 1 μm and 5 mm and having a catalyst material on their surface and (ii) a carbon-containing gas at a temperature and pressure at which the carbon-containing gas will react to form carbon when in the presence of the catalyst material, and (b) forming aligned nanostructures by the carbon-forming reaction, wherein the substrate particles are of silica, alumina, carbon, mica, magnesium oxide, calcium oxide, sodium chloride, or a mixture of two or more thereof, or are of graphite, aluminium, or titanium, and further wherein the substrate particles are freshly prepared by colloidal processing, spray-drying, hydrothermal processing, or ball milling, and further wherein the substrate particles having the catalyst material on their surface are prepared by depositing the catalyst material on the surface of the substrate particles by electroless deposition, solvent drying, supercritical drying, sputtering, physical vapour deposition or electroplating, and further wherein the catalyst material is a transition metal, an alloy of two or more thereof, a compound of a transition metal or a mixture of two or more compounds of transition metals, where the transition metal is iron, cobalt, molybdenum or nickel.