Large-scale well-aligned carbon nanotube film and carbon nanotube bundles have been fabricated on smooth silica and rough polycrystalline ceramic substrates by pyrolysis of ferrocene/melamine mixtures. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that the layer covering the tops of the carbon nanotubes consists of carbon, iron and oxygen. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDX) and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) spectra show that nanotubes grown on the two different substrates are pure carbon tubes. The images of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) show that large-scale, continuous and well-aligned carbon nanotube film forms on the silica plate, while only carbon nanotube bundles can be synthesized on the ceramic wafer. The images of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) show that carbon nanotubes grown on both silica and ceramic substrates have uniform outer diameters of about 25 nm and are composed of many irregular cup-like structures. The effect of substrate morphology on the formation of large-scale carbon nanotube film has been discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.