Hollow nanotubular structure

In addition to chemical composition, as discussed in Sect. 3, the route of self-assembly also significantly affects the resulting structure because different kineti-cally folded structures may be formed. For example, subtilisin-triggered formation of Fmoc-Ls via ester hydrolysis gives rise to hollow nanotubular structures [22], whereas Fmoc-Ls gel formed by the thermolysin-catalysed reversed hydrolysis of the Fmoc-L/L2 system gives rise to nanofibrillar morphology [21]. 

Styryltropylium (a carbo-cation) was used to modify clay for producing PS nanocomposites by in situ emulsion polymerization (Table 3.4) [60]. The resulting nanocomposites exhibited a mixture of intercalated and exfoliated structures. The nanocomposites exhibited improved thermal stability and fire retardancy. Halloysite nanotubes (HNT) are a kind of aluminosilicate clay with a hollow nanotubular structure (about 20-50 nm in diameter and several hundred nanometers in length) [61]. HNT was modified with y-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane to produce a nanoclay (Table 3.4). HNT/PS nanocomposites were prepared by in situ bulk polymerization. The thermal stability of the HNT/PS nanocomposites was better than that of the pure polystyrene. 

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