Aerosol-assisted self-assembly of hybrid Layered Double Hydroxide particles into spherical architectures

Acetate intercalated NiAl-Layered Double Hydroxide nanoparticles were prepared by polyol process and further used as building blocks to form hybrid LDH spheres by a spray drying technique. The spherical aggregated LDH particles display a polydispersed size with a diameter ranging from 47 nm to 2 μm. The analysis of the thermal behavior evidenced that the spherical form was maintained upon calcination up to 1100°C, giving rise to derived mixed oxide (NiO+NiAl(2)O(4)) nanospheres. Interestingly, the spherical morphology of the LDH materials was also retained during anion exchange process. The replacement of the intercalated acetate anion by of a voluminous anion such as dodecylsulfate induces an increase of the nanosphere mean diameter of 65%. The different materials were deeply characterized using X-ray diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopies, dynamic light scattering, thermal analysis and nitrogen sorption.