Carbon nanostructures (fullerenes: and nanotubes) were obtained using the carbon are technique employing homogeneous carbon-iron and carbon-cobart-nickel anodes. The influence of these catalysts on the are plasma was studied by optical emission spectroscopy to determine temperatures and C-2 radical content in the arc zone. The solid products were analyzed by spectrophotometry and mass spectrometry to determine the C-60 yield and relative mass distributions of the higher fullerenes, respectively. SEM and TEM techniques were used to affirm the presence of carbon nanotubes in the resulting soot product.