Growing carbon nanotubes and relative nanomaterials directly on metal support has attracted increasing attention due to its applications in nanoelectronics and composites. In order to reveal the effect of metal support on the catalytic property of the catalyst, several metal powders were selected as catalyst carrier for carbon nanomaterial growth by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The results show that the interaction between metal support and catalyst plays a key role for the activity of the catalyst, while, the metal support itself has a relative little effect. By critically controlling their interactions, all metal powders are extrapolated to be used as catalyst supports for the carbon nanomaterial growth by CVD. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.