Delamination and restacking of layered double hydroxides

Layered double hydroxides recovered after exfoliation have been characterized by solid state chemistry techniques. The nature of the recovered materials is highly dependant on the drying process; when gently dried, a well-ordered phase is obtained, either by freeze-drying or reconstruction, but the material becomes amorphous after evaporation of the solvent. Delamination was used to prepare interstratified LDHs, making this technique a new route to the formation of a wide range of tunable materials.