Carbon nanotubes terminated with hard magnetic FePt nanomagnets

The advancement in carbon nanotube (CNT) technology includes significant interest in their functionalization to modify their chemical and physical properties. In particular, the selective functionalization of the CNT ends opens exciting opportunities to design nanoscale architectures and networks. The realization of hard-magnetically terminated CNT via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition from Fe-Pt thin films is reported. Although FePt is rarely used as a catalyst for CNT synthesis the said binary catalyst affords attractive hard magnetic properties when present in the chemically ordered L 1 0 phase.