the process of synthesizing carbon nanotubes is showed schematically in fig1 . anodic oxidation of an aluminum ( 99 . 99 %) substrate 10 was carried out in 0 . 3 m of oxalic acid bath at cell voltages of 25 , 40 , 50 and 65 v respectively at 18 ° c . while the oxalic acid bath is preferred , other anodizing electrolyte media such as sulphuric , phosphoric and chromic acids may also be used . in these examples the film thickness was controlled to lie in the range 4 - 10 μm by selecting the anodic oxidation time appropriately . under the present experimental conditions , the film thickness is calculated using the formula : d = αltl / a ; where a is an experimentally determined constant equal to 0 . 017 μm /( ma cm - 2 min ); / is the anodizing current in ma ; t is the anodizing time in minutes , and a is the aluminum sample area in cm 2 . films in the range 1 - 100 μm may be generated in this way . the anodized alumina templates 12 were immersed in 0 . 1 m phosphoric acid at 30 ° for 30 min . to widen the pores and to thin the barrier layer . after widening , the average pore diameter of the pores 14 in template 12 obtained at cell voltages of 25 , 40 , 50 and 65 v are 20 , 35 , 50 and 70 nm , respectively . the pores 14 are straight , uniform and parallel as shown in the diagrammatic representation in fig1 . a cobalt ( or iron ) catalyst sample 16 approximately 200 nm in length was electrochemically deposited at the bottom of the pores using 14 v and 100 hz of ac cell voltage for 30 seconds in a bath consisting of 240 g / l of coso 4 • 7h 2 o , ( or 120 g / l of feso 4 • 7h 2 o ) 40 g / l of hbo 3 and 1 g / l of ascorbic acid . the cobalt - containing templates 12 were placed in a tube furnace and reduced at 600 ° c . for 4 - 5 hours in flowing co ( 100 ml / min ). then a mixture of 10 % acetylene in nitrogen was introduced into the reactor at a flow rate of 100 ml / min . acetylene was decomposed by pyrolysis in the temperature range 640 ° c . to 700 ° c . to form the carbon nanotubes 20 in the template channels . while this is a preferred temperature range the acetylene may be decomposed in a range from 600 ° c . to about 800 ° c . in addition to acetylene , it will be understood that other hydrocarbon containing gases may be used , for example propylene and methane to mention just a few . after formation , the nanotubes 20 were annealed to further graphitize the tubes at 700 ° c . in flowing nitrogen for 15 hours . fig2 shows sem image of the nanotubes whose ends were exposed by partially etching the alumina template with a naoh solution . the nanotubes 20 are perpendicular to the template 12 . their ends at the alumina / air interface are open and their outer diameters correspond to the inner diameters of the pores 14 . an electron diffraction pattern ( fig3 a ) recorded for a bundle of the nanotubes that had been released from the alumina template by dissolving the latter in a naoh solution , ( fig4 a ) reveals an ordered graphitic arrangement within the bundles . the inter - layer spacing in the 002 direction ( d 002 ) deduced from the electron diffraction data is approximately 3 . 45 nm , which is close that value in graphite ( d 002 = 3 . 35 nm ). electroless nickel deposits were produced in an acid bath consisting of 30 g / l of nickel chloride , 10 g / l of sodium hypophosphite , 50 g / l of sodium acetate and ammonia to ph = 5 . the alumina templates containing carbon nanotubes were washed with acetone then with distilled water . the washed templates were dipped in the electroless deposition bath for 20 - 30 min at 25 - 40 ° c . the reaction producing the nickel deposit can be formulated as : it was found that addition of 0 . 5 g / l of quinhydrone improved the deposition . the quinhydrone may function as a surfactant to increase the wetting of the walls of nanotubes by the solution and as a ph stabilizing agent . other surfactants , such as gelatine , dodecyl sulfate sodium salt , are also anticipated to improve the wetting efficacy of the deposition solution . after completely dissolving the alumina template using 0 . 1 m naoh solution at 60 - 80 ° c ., the metal - containing nanotubes ( fig4 b ) could be separated as an insoluble precipitate . an electron diffraction pattern ( fig3 b ) recorded for the bundle of nickel - containing nanotubes exhibits clear diffraction spots corresponding to nickel metal , which coincidentally almost overlaps the diffraction rings produced by the carbon layers of the nanotubes due to the near - correspondence of some of the lattice constants . a lattice constant of approximately 3 . 52 nm is obtained from the electron diffraction pattern of the deposited metal . the high - resolution tem image ( fig5 ) shows that the deposited metal is highly crystalline . an edx analysis of the metal encapsulated in the nanotubes shows it to be a nickel / phosphorous mixture with an average ni / p ratio of 94 % ni and 6 % p . while nickel , cobalt and iron are preferred catalysts for deposition into the pores of the anodized aluminum template for growth of the carbon nanotubes , it is anticipated by the inventors that other suitable or effective catalysts may be used . for example , the metals below each of these three preferred metals are reasonably expected to work to some degree . similarly , those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous other metals may be deposited into the carbon nanotubes once formed . examples include metals such as ag , cu , bi , pb and sn may be deposited into the nanotubes by electroless deposition . it will also be understood by those skilled in the art that the nanotubes may be filled with the metals by electrochemical deposition . the present method is highly advantageous over prior art methods of growing carbon tubes since in prior art methods the lack of catalyst in the pores yields tubes that exhibit poor uniformity along the tube axis due to the influence of diffusion of the gaseous reagents into and out of the pores of the template . in the present method , it is not necessary to strip off the oxide film from the aluminum plate so that a thin film , i . e . a film that is not self - supporting , can also be used as a template allowing one to make tubes of any desired length , by using templates of the appropriate thickness in the practical range 0 . 1 μm to over 100 μm , in contrast to the method described by kyotani et al . ( chem . mater ., 8 , 2190 , 1996 ), that requires self - supporting templates and hence is incapable of making tubes below a minimum length below which the template is no longer self - supporting . the present method also provides a much more economical method of growing nanotubes since the number of procedural steps is decreased . the carbon nanotubes resulting from catalytic , thermal decomposition result in the growth of much more uniform tubes in the pores in contrast to tubes grown in templates without catalyst . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the process for producing carbon nanotubes has been presented to illustrate the principles of the invention and not to limit the invention to the particular embodiments disclosed . it is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by all of the embodiments encompassed within the following claims and their equivalents .