Nitrogen-doped Y-junction bamboo-shaped carbon nanotubes were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition of monoethanolamine/ferrocene mixture on GaAs substrate at 950 degrees C. The use of monoethanolamine as the C/N feedstock simplifies the experimental arrangement by producing ammonia during the growth process. The structure, morphology and graphitization of as-grown nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (CNx) were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy analysis. TEM analysis indicates that nanotubes have a bamboo-like structure. The nitrogen concentration on as-grown CNx nanotube was found to be 7.8 at.% by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. XPS analysis also indicated that there are two different types of nitrogen atoms (pyridinic and graphitic) in these materials. The possible growth mechanism of formation of Y-junction CNx nanotubes was briefly discussed. Field emission measurement suggested that as-grown CNx nanotubes are excellent emitters with turn-on and threshold fields of 1.6 and 2.63 V/mu m, respectively. The result indicated that monoethanolamine proves to be an advantageous precursor to synthesize Y-junction nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes and such nanotubes might be an effective material to fabricate various field emission devices. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.