US Patent 7067096 - Carbon Nanotubes with Carbon Nanohorns

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7067096.pdf

One of the problems of carbon nanotube fabrication is that the nanotubes are sticky and tend to bundle together during manufacture. This presents difficulties for applications requiring extracting individual nanotubes. This patent proposes a solution of combining carbon nanotubes with carbon nanohorns, which are similar to nanotubes except having a horn shape instead of a cylinder shape. The nanohorns act as a wedge between the nanotubes to facilitate nanotube separation. Claim 1 reads:

1. A carbon nanotube-carbon nanohorn complex, which comprises a dispersion comprising carbon nanotubes and carbon nanohorns, said dispersion being aggregated to form a complex.