A novel hybrid filler of halloysite nanotubes/silica fabricated by electrostatic self-assembly

A novel halloysite nanotubes (HNTs)/silica hybrid filler (HNTs-silica) was successfully fabricated by coassembly between negatively charged HNTs and positively charged silica particles modified with 3-triethoxysilylpropylamine in deionized water. In this unique hybrid architecture, it was found that HNTs was uniformly adsorbed by the silica (about 20 wt%) particles, which can suppress the aggregation of HNTs and silica and effectively enlarge the specific surface area of HNTs through the silica nano-protrusions on the surface of the nanotubes, making HNTs-silica ideally suited as a novel hybrid filler and opening up new opportunities for the preparation of high performance polymer nanocomposites.