Carbon nitride nanotubulite - densely-packed and well-aligned tubular nanostructures

Tubular carbon nitride (CNx, x = 0.01-0.32) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by d.c. magnetron sputtering. These tubes were grown in a high ly packed form perpendicularly on a sodium chloride substrate. Their number density is estimated to be similar to 1 x 10(4) per mu m(2) and is constan t over macroscopic regions. Sub-nanometer scale chemical mapping shows that the nitrogen to carbon atomic ratio is rather constant across these tubes. This successful synthesis of a nanotubulite - made of a rather compact agg regation of tubular nanoparticles - could facilitate experimental approache s to measure mechanical or electrical transport properties of such nanotube s and to open the way to variable nanotube applications. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.