The halloysite nanotube, obtained from deposited soil, has a cylindrical structure witha large surface area similar to a paper towel roll. The morphology of a multi-walled tubular HNT is analogous to that of multi-walled carbon. The halloysite is well known for its many applications as nanoreactors or nanotemplates, catalysts, and capillaries. In this study, the halloysite was exploited as a nanoreactor to synthesize well-known metal-organic framework (MOF), HKUST-1. Since this hybrid material mainly consists of the micropores, it can complement the mesoporosity of the halloysite which is the main porosity of it. Close packing of the lumen of the halloysite was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to identify whether the isolated MOF crystal exists. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to find functionalities, and the crystallinity of the product was identified by X-ray diffractometry (XRD). Brunauer�Emmett�Teller (BET) and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) methods indicated that the lumen of the halloysite was packed, with the crystal having specific micropores of the HKUST-1.

Halloysite as a nanoreactor for metal-organic framework

248th National Meeting (2014)

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