A SIMPLE CHEMICAL METHOD OF OPENING AND FILLING CARBON NANOTUBES

Since carbon nanotubes(1) were first synthesized in macroscopic quanti ties(2), it has become possible to explore their physical and chemical characteristics. There has been much speculation(3) about the propert ies of materials encapsulated within the tubes, but experimental studi es of this issue require a reliable means of opening and filling the t ubes. Various approaches have been developed for opening Up(4-6) th, t ube ends and encapsulating material(4,6,7), but these work only for a limited range of materials or in low yield. Here we describe a general method that allows carbon nanotubes to be opened at the end and fille d with a variety of metal oxides using wet chemical techniques. We ant icipate that this method will lead to extensive study of the chemistry and physics of filled nanotubes, which might find applications in cat alysis, separation and storage technology and in the development of ma terials with new magnetic and electrical properties.