Possible room-temperature ferromagnetism in hydrogenated carbon nanotubes

Abstract

We find that ferromagnetism can be induced in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by introducing hydrogen. Multiwalled CNTs grown inside porous alumina templates contain a large density of defects resulting in significant hydrogen uptake when annealed at high temperatures. This hydrogen incorporation produces H-complex and adatom magnetism which generates a sizable ferromagnetic moment and a Curie temperature near ${T}_{C}=1000\text{ }\text{K}$. We studied the conditions for the incorporation of hydrogen, the temperature-dependent magnetic behavior, and the dependence of the ferromagnetism on the size of the nanotubes.