The structure evolution of halloysite nanotubes during the acid leaching process: A molecular dynamics study

A computational and experimental investigation of the anchoring of organosilanes on the halloysite silicic surface

“…Hal are natural occurring 1:1 aluminum phyllosilicates with Al 2 Si 2 O 5 (OH) 4 • nH 2 O as stoichiometric formula, where n can be 0 or 2 and it corresponds to the number of water molecules in the interlayer space, thus resulting in either the dehydrated 7 Å-halloysite or in the hydrated 10 Å-halloysite, respectively (Zsirka et al, 2017;Makó et al, 2020). Being structurally composed by the alternation of a tetrahedral Si−O based sheet which is overlapped to an octahedral Al−OH sheet, halloysite displays different groups in the external and internal surfaces (Hua et al, 2023;Ferrante et al, 2017). In particular, the kaolinite-like sheet rolls up, thus providing the nanoclay with its most distinctive property, i.e.…”