Hybridization of natural inorganic materials (natural minerals) by carbon nanotubes

In this work we briefly summarized results of extensive experiments focused on hybridization natural inorganic substrates by carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The kernel of the experiments is catalytic synthesis of CNTs on/into natural inorganic substrates involving two technological processes. The first one is incorporation of catalytically active metals into the structure of the substrates while the second one is in-situ synthesis of CNTs in a HF CVD reactor. The main objective of the experiments is to contribute to understanding the mechanism of the rise of new hybrid materials. Selection of the natural inorganic substances includes a group of minerals with similar chemical compositions but with markedly different morphologies as well as materials containing iron - colloid scraps after raw mineral mining. The main methods of characterizing the hybrids are Raman spectroscopy along with scanning and transmission electron microscopies