Abstract
It was shown that, when filled with gallium, carbon nanotubes can absorb copper vapor with extraordinarily high efficiency. The copper vapor generated from the supporting copper grid upon heating to 800 °C in an electron microscope under a pressure of 1.0×10−5 Pa quickly deposited into the carbon nanotubes and formed an alloy with gallium where the vapor pressure is up to 500 times higher (5×10−3 Pa). These filled carbon nanotubes may be used as highly sensitive toxic or radioactive metal vapor absorbents since gallium also tends to form alloys with metals like mercury and uranium.