Dispersion and size control of layered double hydroxide nanoparticles in aqueous solutions.

We report a simple but efficient method to prepare stable homogeneous suspensions containing monodispersed MgAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles that have wide promising applications in cellular drug (gene) delivery, polymer/LDH nanocomposites, and LDH thin films for catalysis, gas separation, sensing, and electrochemical materials. This new method involves a fast coprecipitation followed by controlled hydrothermal treatment under different conditions and produces stable homogeneous LDH suspensions under variable hydrothermal treatment conditions. Moreover, the relationship between the LDH particle size and the hydrothermal treatment conditions (time, temperature, and concentration) has been systematically investigated, which indicates that the LDH particle size can be precisely controlled between 40 and 300 nm by adjusting these conditions. The reproducibility of making the identical suspensions under identical conditions has been confirmed with a number of experiments. The dispersion of agglomerated LDH aggregates into individual LDH crystallites during the hydrothermal treatment has been further discussed. This method has also been successfully applied to preparing stable homogeneous LDH suspensions containing various other metal ions such as Ni(2+), Fe(2+), Fe(3+), Co(2+), Cd(2+), and Gd(3+) in the hydroxide layers and many inorganic anions such as Cl(-), CO(3)(2-), NO(3)(-), and SO(4)(2-).