from 50 to 10000 watts while in other embodiments the power range is between 100 to 1000 watts the reactions may be carried out in a closed or open vessel in a batch or continuous mode in another embodiment the microwave purification process is preceded by pretreating involving but not limited to chemical reaction heating washing chemical washing drying and oxidation a washing is a solvent rinse while a chemical wash in some embodiments includes at least one surfactant such pretreating may include more than one of such treatments for example a heating and a chemical reaction in yet another embodiment post treating involving but not limited to chemical reactions oxidation washing chemical washing drying and washing can be employed as with pretreating post treating steps may be used singly sequentially or in combination the chemical processing experiments involved in the present invention were carried out in a microwave oven a cem model 205 system using a 100 ml reaction chamber which was lined with teflon pfa u00ae and fitted with a 0 200 psi pressure controller typical single and multiwall carbon nanotube samples containing about 10 weight percent and 1 weight percent of catalytic metals obtained from carbon nanotechnologies inc and cheap tubes inc respectively were used for the experiments conducted to demonstrate the invention.