Abstract. A two-step magnetically assisted capillary action method is demonstrated as a facile technique to produce hollow carbon nanotubes filled with uniformly dispersed Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs). Template-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown CNTs with average diameter 200–300 nm and length 5–6  µm were effectively used as 'nanostraws' to suck in chemically synthesized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (mean size ~6 nm) in a ferrofluid suspension. Temperature and magnetic field-dependent DC magnetization measurements indicate that these functionalized nanotubes are superparamagnetic at room temperature with enhanced interparticle interactions due to the close packing of the nanoparticles within the tubes. Magnetic relaxation phenomena in these filled nanotubes are probed using frequency-dependent AC susceptibility. The reasonably large saturation magnetization (M_s = 65 emu g⁻¹) attained in these nanostructures makes them very promising for a diverse set of applications that utilize both the magnetic and dielectric functionalities of these composite nanotube materials.

Print publication: Issue 48 (2 December 2009)
Received 20 July 2009, in final form 13 October 2009
Published 30 October 2009