Aqueous synthesis and electronic spectroscopy of layered hydroxide nanosheets

Abstract

We propose a green synthetic route based on coordination chemistry to produce nanostructured layered double hy-droxides (LDHs). The synthesized NiAl-, NiFe- and ZnAl-LDHs present similar morphology and crystal structure. We pro-pose a possible mechanism of LDH formation by exploiting pH-potentiometric titrations. Extensive electronic spectrosco-py analyses, interpreted under the lens of ligand field theory, provides key insights into the formation mechanism of NiFe-LDH.