Since fullernes and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were discovered 1, some other interesting nanostructural carbon materials have been found such as metal-included carbon nanocapsules (CNCs) 2-5, Bucky onions 6, carbon nanohorns 7, and carbon micro coils 8. Among these materials, metal included particles were specially interesting because they are expected to be used for electromagnetic and micromachine technologies. There are several common methods to fabricate such nanocarbons, which can be categorized into (1) arc discharge 9, (2) laser ablation 10, (3) plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition 11, and (4) thermal pyrolysis 12. Among these methods, pyrolysis is considered to be efficient for large-scale CNT production, and has come to commercial base. However, metal-included CNCs have not yet been commercialized because an efficient synthesis method is not known. This letter reports that high purity Fe-included CNCs can be efficiently produced separately from CNTs by pyrolysis of ferrocene in pure H_2 flow.
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