US Patent 7563428 - High yield SWCNT fabrication

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7563428.html

This patent from the University of Oklahoma has some early priority (June 2, 1999) and teaches a CVD manufacturing method with a relatively high yield of carbon nanotubes of the single walled variety. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for selectively producing single-walled carbon nanotubes, comprising:

providing catalytic particles comprising at least one Group VIII metal, excluding iron, and at least one Group VIb metal selected from the group consisting of Mo and W;

providing a carbon containing gas; and

feeding the catalytic particles and the carbon-containing gas into a reactor wherein the catalytic particles and carbon-containing gas are mixed at a temperature sufficient to catalytically produce a solid carbon product comprising carbon nanotubes wherein single-walled carbon nanotubes comprise 80% or more of the solid carbon product and wherein amorphous carbon, graphite and multi-walled carbon nanotubes comprise 20% or less of the solid carbon product.