Chemical vapor deposition using 2-methyl-1,2′-naphthyl ketone as a starting material has been done between 1000 and 600 °C on Ni particles with diameters ranging from 10 to 500 nm. The Ni particles were prepared by annealing Ni thin film deposited on quartz glass substrates. The size of the Ni particle was controlled by the thickness of the Ni film. Carbon nanotubes were obtained at 700 °C when the diameter of the Ni particles was about 20–30 nm.

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A nucleation model was proposed for a carbon nanotube enclosing a Ni bar which was grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at 700 °C using round Ni particles. At an early stage of CVD, each round Ni particle with a diameter of about 30 nm is covered with graphite layers. The graphite-covered Ni particle is considered to be unstable because the graphite layers have a large curvature. This instability is thought to make the graphite-covered Ni particles transform into a Ni bar enclosed within a carbon nanotube. In order to verify this nucleation model, we show that the size of the round Ni particle is a decisive condition for carbon nanotube formation by CVD, and that an intermediate state of the transformation of the graphite-covered Ni particles to the carbon-nanotube-enclosed Ni bar was observed by transmission electron microscopy.