Preparing kaolinite nanotubes and their catalytic activation by acid treatment

Aluminosilicate nanotubes (ANT) with a length of 600–1000 nm and a diameter of 15–25 nm were obtained by successive intercalation of kaolin with dimethyl sulfoxide and methanol followed by treatment with a cetyltrimethylammonium chloride solution. It is shown for the first time that the treatment of ANT with a mixture of H 2 SO 4 –H 2 O 2 leads to removing organic impurities from them and appearing catalytic activity in the α-pinene epoxide isomerization, the products of whicn are campholenic (41.4 %) and iso-campholenic (22.7 %) aldehydes in cyclohexane and trans-carveol (up to 56.0 %) in dimethyl sulfoxide.