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 highly 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 constant 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 aggregation of tubular nanoparticles - could facilitate experimental approaches to measure mechanical or electrical transport properties of such nanotubes and to open the way to variable nanotube applications. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.