Engineering New Layered Solids from Exfoliated Inorganics: a Periodically Alternating Hydrotalcite - Montmorillonite Layered Hybrid

Chalasani, Rajesh and Gupta, Amit and Vasudevan, Sukumaran (2013) Engineering New Layered Solids from Exfoliated Inorganics: a Periodically Alternating Hydrotalcite - Montmorillonite Layered Hybrid. In: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 3 .

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Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets obtained by exfoliating inorganic layered crystals have emerged as a new class of materials with unique attributes. One of the critical challenges is to develop robust and versatile methods for creating new nanostructures from these 2D-nanosheets. Here we report the delamination of layered materials that belonging to two different classes - the cationic clay, montmorillonite, and the anionic clay, hydrotalcite - by intercalation of appropriate ionic surfactants followed by dispersion in a non-polar solvent. The solids are delaminated to single layers of atomic thickness with the ionic surfactants remaining tethered to the inorganic and consequently the nanosheets are electrically neutral. We then show that when dispersions of the two solids are mixed the exfoliated sheets self-assemble as a new layered solid with periodically alternating hydrotalcite and montmorillonite layers. The procedure outlined here is easily extended to other layered solids for creating new superstructures from 2D-nanosheets by self-assembly.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Publisher:	NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
Additional Information:	copyright for this article belongs to NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, ENGLAND
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Inorganic & Physical Chemistry
Date Deposited:	10 Jan 2014 06:48
Last Modified:	10 Jan 2014 06:48
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/48174

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