Patent ID: 7670431

Claim:
A carbon nanotube manufacturing apparatus, comprising: a reaction tube in which a carbon nanotube is grown by vapor phase growth; a gas supplying pipe that supplies a carbon-containing raw material carried on a gas flow to an interior of the reaction tube; a heating unit that heats the interior of the reaction tube; a gas decomposer that is placed in the reaction tube to decompose the carbon-containing raw material upon contact with the gas flow; and a synthesizing portion that is placed in the reaction tube downstream, in the direction of the gas flow, of the gas decomposer and continuously supplied with the decomposed carbon-containing raw material, which has been carried on the gas flow to an outside of the gas decomposer, to synthesize a carbon nanotube, wherein the gas decomposer is separate from and does not contact the synthesizing portion, and the gas decomposer is a molecular sieve.