Inorganic fillers are widely used in coatings, paints, printing inks, and papermaking. A general problem in such applications is the poor compatibility and weak bondability of the filler with polymeric substrates. Surface modification and encapsulation are common methods adapted to enhance interactions between the filler surface and the substrate. This article presents a bondability improvement between inorganic particles and a polysaccharide substrate by the use of cellulose-coated, inorganic core-shell nanoparticles. The crystallinity of the coated carbohydrate layer is shown to significantly affect the bondability of the core-shell particles. The impact of the coating layer on the light scattering efficiency has also been studied. with theoretical Mie scattering calculations. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.