Growth of carbon nanofibers array under magnetic force by chemical vapor deposition

In this Letter, we report the growth of carbon nanofibers arrays by chemica l vapor deposition in the presence of magnetic force. We find that when a m agnet is applied carbon nanofibers arrays are grown and when the magnet is absent carbon nanotubes arrays are grown at the same experimental condition s. The nanofibers are worse in alignment and less in graphitization than th ose of the nanotubes grown at the same conditions. What is interesting is t hat two or three nanofibers can be connected together through a catalyst na noparticle. These connections might be useful, especially in the fabricatio n of nanoelectronic devices. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights rese rved.