New forms of carbon, such as fullerenes and carbon nanotubes, are expected to have a wide variety of interesting properties. Recent developments in synthetic technique have allowed the synthesis of a new number of the family, the strings of multi-shell buckyballs, and the generation of macroscopic amount of the material. In this research, we have detailed the structure of the strings of multi-shell buckyballs with high resolution transmission electron microscopy and found that this material is different from graphitic onion and graphitic polyhedron in both morphology and forming condition. We also have discussed the forming mechanism of the strings of multi-shell buckyballs in this paper.

Key words: NICKEL, METAL CATALYST, IRON, GRAPHITE TUBES