the following examples are intended to demonstrate various embodiments of the invention they are not intended to limit the scope of the invention but merely provide the skilled reader with means for performing the invention and indicate that the carbon nanostructures made according to the present invention are industrially applicable a quartz reaction chamber and an anodic aluminium oxide aao template were used to synthesise carbon nanotubes a peg based polymer was used as the carbon source evaporation of polyethylene glycol began at 160 degrees celsius and the evaporated molecules settled in the nanochannels of the aao template forming the initial polymer layer the thickness of this polymer layer was not uniform at this stage as more material was deposited near the open ends of the nanochannels than in the nanochannels themselves the evaporation continued with the smallest polymer molecules being the first to evaporate and the largest molecule 3 6 9 12 tetraoxahexadecan 1 ol evaporated at around 315 degrees celsius the polymer was completely evaporated by the time the temperature of the reaction furnace reached 320 degrees celsius as the reaction chamber temperature was raised from 320 to 500 degrees celsius annealing took place a uniform thickness polymer layer was formed at this stage high temperature carbonization for 30 minutes at temperatures in excess of 500 degrees celsius of the polymer layers resulted in the formation of carbon nanotubes with.