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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Molten-Salt Synthesis of Complex Metal Oxide Nanoparticles
Published on: October 27, 2018
Structure of bayerite-based lithium-aluminum layered double hydroxides (LDHs): observation of monoclinic symmetry
Sylvia Britto1, P Vishnu Kamath
1Department of Chemistry, Central College, Bangalore University, Bangalore 560 001, India.
Abstract:
The double hydroxides of Li with Al, obtained by the imbibition of Li salts into bayerite and gibbsite-Al(OH)(3), are not different polytypes of the same symmetry but actually crystallize in two different symmetries. The bayerite-derived double hydroxides crystallize with monoclinic symmetry, while the gibbsite-derived hydroxides crystallize with hexagonal symmetry. Successive metal hydroxide layers in the bayerite-derived LDHs are translated by the vector ( approximately -1/3, 0, 1) with respect to each other. The exigency of hydrogen bonding drives the intercalated Cl(-) ion to a site with 2-fold coordination, whereas the intercalated water occupies a site with 6-fold coordination having a pseudotrigonal prismatic symmetry. The nonideal nature of the interlayer sites has implications for the observed selectivity of Li-Al LDHs toward anions of different symmetries.
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