Abstract
Ultrafine particles surrounded by graphitic carbon layers have been produced by the arc burning of a composite carbon rod containing ZrC or VC. The size of the ultrafine particles is typically in the range of 20-40 nm in diameter and the number of graphitic carbon layers surrounding a core particle ranges from about 10 to 30. The core ultrafine particles are found to be ZrC (via ZrC-graphite composite rod) and V4C3 (via VC-graphite composite rod) by selected-area electron diffraction from each composite nanoball (graphite nanoball with a core particle).