A new method for nano-tube imogolite synthesis

The discovery of carbon nano-tube and fullerene nano-ball has accelerated rapid development in the field of nano-scale materials. Imogolite is nano-sized aluminum silicate with tubular morphology that exist in various soil environments and has been already found in the soil environment long before carbon nano-tube was discovered. However, development in research of imogolite is still stagnant compared to other nano-materials. One of the main reasons is imogolite cannot be synthesized except in the dilute parent solution resulting in low yield of product. Here we propose a dialysis membrane method to produce orthosilicic acid which can be applied for large scale of imogolite synthesis with flow reaction system.