Current trends in research and application of natural mineral nanotubes

Halloysite, palygorskite, sepiolite, and chrysotile are the four major natural mineral nanotubes which are discussed in this book. Of all the possibilities, these four types have been studied the most and have offered the most possibilities for practical applications. There are some other mineral species that are nanotubular but which have received only limited attention in the literature for possible applications. These include the hydrous aluminosilicate, imogolite, and the zeolite, erionite. They each receive occasional mention in this volume but extra information on them may be sourced elsewhere, for example, Guimarães et al. (2007) and Brigatti et al. (2013), for imogolite; Dogan and Dogan (2008), for erionite.