Rod-like fluorescent halloysite nanotubes-silica composites: A novel colloidal system

An inexpensive novel method to produce a rod-like fluorescent colloidal system is presented in this work. The system consists of core-shell particles synthesized by using halloysite nanotubes as cores, and silica layers as shells on their surfaces. Unlike traditional protocols for producing silica core-shell particles, the method used in this work does not require a coupling agent. In addition, a fluorescent dye was incorporated to produce fluorescent composites. Due to their resulting morphology and the possibility of incorporating a fluorescent dye, they constitute a promising new colloidal model system for studying the physics of anisotropic colloidal suspensions experimentally, as well as a potential source of new materials.