Lo Bianco Alessandro, Calvino Martina Maria, Cavallaro Giuseppe, Lisuzzo Lorenzo, Pasbakhsh Pooria, Milioto Stefana, Lazzara Giuseppe, Lvov Yuri
Department of Physics and Chemistry - Emilio Segrè, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze 17, Palermo, 90128, Italy.
Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
Small. 2024 Dec;20(51):e2406812. doi: 10.1002/smll.202406812. Epub 2024 Oct 7.
Self-assembling of very long natural clay nanotubes represents a powerful strategy to fabricate thermo-stable inorganic thin films suitable for environmental applications. In this work, self-standing films with variable thicknesses (from 60 to 300 µm) are prepared by the entanglement of 20-30 µm length Patch halloysite clay nanotubes (PT_Hal), which interconnect into fibrosus structures. The thickness of the films is crucial to confer specific properties like transparency, mechanical resistance, and water uptake. Despite its completely inorganic composition, the thickest nanoclay film possesses elasticity comparable with polymeric materials as evidenced by its Young's modulus (ca. 1710 MPa). All PT_Hal-based films are fire resistant and stable under high temperature conditions preventing flame propagation. After their direct flame exposure, produced films do not show neither deterioration effects nor macroscopic alterations. PT_Hal films are employed as precursors for the development of functional materials by alkaline activation and thermal treatment, which generate highly porous geopolymers or ceramics with a compact morphology. Due to its high porosity, geopolymer can be promising for CO capture. As compared to the corresponding inorganic film, the CO adsorption efficiency is doubled for the halloysite geopolymeric materials highlighting their potential use as a sorbent.
超长天然粘土纳米管的自组装是制备适用于环境应用的热稳定无机薄膜的一种有效策略。在这项工作中,通过20 - 30微米长的片状埃洛石粘土纳米管(PT_Hal)相互缠结制备了厚度可变(60至300微米)的自立膜,这些纳米管相互连接形成纤维状结构。膜的厚度对于赋予诸如透明度、机械抗性和吸水性等特定性能至关重要。尽管其完全由无机物组成,但最厚的纳米粘土膜具有与聚合物材料相当的弹性,其杨氏模量(约1710兆帕)证明了这一点。所有基于PT_Hal的膜都具有耐火性,并且在高温条件下稳定,可防止火焰蔓延。在直接暴露于火焰后,所制备的膜既没有显示出劣化效应也没有宏观变化。PT_Hal膜通过碱活化和热处理用作功能材料开发的前驱体,可生成具有致密形态的高度多孔地质聚合物或陶瓷。由于其高孔隙率,地质聚合物有望用于二氧化碳捕获。与相应的无机膜相比,埃洛石地质聚合物材料的二氧化碳吸附效率提高了一倍,突出了它们作为吸附剂的潜在用途。