Letters to the editor / Carbon 40 (2002) 955 –971 965 elemental analysis, Dr. E.N. Vlasova of the Institute of self-organization of its components on the surface of C . 60 Macromolecular Compounds (St. Petersburg), Russian Therefore, the suggestion that the C globules in C are sh Academy of Science, for recording the electronic spectra, similar to fullerene-like multilayer clusters [4,5] is prema- Prof. V. Snitka of the Research Center for Microsystems ture, because the presence of pentagonal organization in and Nanotechnology (Kaunas University of Technology) the layers of graphite-like packets has not been shown. On for Atomic Force Microscopy investigations of fullerene- the contrary, a thermal increase in the size of C globules is like quasi-crystals and C fullerites, and S.E. Osipov not in agreement with the relatively high thermal stability 60–70 for other assistance. of fullerenes, and their dimerization and / or polymerization under similar conditions. The absence of calorimetric evidence for the existence of fullerite in C , the free space limitation for the Sh References formation of crystalline fullerite and our evidence for the globular organization of C are reasons for assuming that Sh [1] Buseck PR, Tsipursky SJ, Hettich R. Science 1992;257:215– the high-resolution electron micrograph in Fig. 1a of Ref. 7. [1] corresponds to the globular organization of carbon [2] Holodkevich SV, Bekrenev AV, Donchenko VK et al. Russ black. Dokl Acad Sci 1993;330:340–1. Finally, it should be emphasized that low-energy syn- [3] Shungites—the new natural carbon. Petrozavodsk, 1984, 184 thesis, natural materials and control of the extraction pp. process open up new prospects for experimental and [4] Zaidenberg AZ, Rozhkova NN, Kovalevsky VV et al. Mol theoretical studies of crystalline fullerenes and their Mat 1996;8:107–12. growth. [5] Zaidenberg AZ, Kovalevsky VV, Rozhkova NN, Tupolev AG. Russ J Phys Chem 1996;70:107–10. [6] Mordkovich VZ, Umnov AG, Injshita T, Endo M. Carbon 1999;37:1855–8. Acknowledgements [7] Reznikov VA, Polekhovsky YS. Russ J Techn Phys Lett 2000;26:94–101. The authors are grateful to Dr. Y.K. Kalinin of ‘Carbon- [8] Osipov EV. Certificate RU No. 14734, 23.02.2000. Shungite’ Company (Petrozavodsk) for providing the [9] Konkov OI, Terukov E, Perauder N. Russ Solid State Phys shungite samples, Dr. Y.S. Polekhovsky of St. Petersburg 1994;36:3169–71. State University for supplying the photographs of ful- [10] Penrose R. Bull Inst Math Appl 1974;10:266–9. lerene-like quasi-crystals, Dr. A.V. Goriunov of St. Peter- [11] Reznikov VA, Kehva TE, Plachenov BT. Russ J Techn Phys sburg Technological University for carrying out the Lett 1990;16:1–4. Synthesis of high quality multi-walled carbon nanotubes from the decomposition of acetylene on iron-group metal catalysts supported on MgO a, b b * ´ Yasushi Soneda , Laurent Duclaux , Franc ¸ois Beguin a National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba 305-8569, Japan b ` ´ ´ ´ ´ Centre de Recherche sur la Matiere Divisee, CNRS-Universite,1B, rue de la Ferollerie, 45071 Orleans Cedex 02, France Received 4 January 2002; accepted 18 February 2002 Keywords: A. Carbon nanotubes; B. Catalyst; C. Electron microscopy, D. Microstructure During the last decade, some industrial applications carbon nanotubes (SWNTs and MWNTs). Among many have been anticipated for single-walled and multi-walled factors, their future use will strongly depend on the development of new technologies for a large scale pro- duction. The so-called catalytic decomposition of hydro- *Corresponding author. Tel.: 181-298-61-8405; fax: 181- carbons or carbon monoxide disproportionation [1–6], 298-61-8409. which stand on the chemistry of solid–gas reactions on a E-mail address: y.soneda@aist.go.jp (Y. Soneda). 0008-6223 / 02 / $ – see front matter  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0008-6223(02)00086-6