ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

The structure of water in halloysite nanotubes

Abstract: Water is important in many scientific and technological areas, yet our understanding of this remarkable liquid remains very incomplete. In may cases, it is the properties of water at a surface or interface, rather than in the bulk, that are the key to the system's overall behaviour. There are many diverse examples where this is the case, ranging from protein folding to the uptake of water by soils. In this experiment, we will use the unique powers of neutron scattering to measure the structure of water in a particular type of clay mineral, known as halloysite. Halloysite is remarkable in this context, because it occurs as nano-scale tubes, which are formed from rolled-up scrolls of the clay sheets (like a swiss-roll, where a single molecular layer of water is the jam, and the clay sheet is the sponge-cake). Our expeirments will allow us to study water structure under extreme confinement.

Principal Investigator: Professor Neal Skipper
Local Contact: Dr Tom Headen
Experimenter: Miss Nia Gray
Experimenter: Professor Stephen Hillier
Experimenter: Mr Aasim Shaffi
Experimenter: Dr Andrew Seel

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1810741

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1810741

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Neal Skipper et al; (2018): The structure of water in halloysite nanotubes, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1810741

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.