Synthesis and characterization of macroporous MgAl LDH using polystyrene spheres as template

To overcome some limitations of LDH-type materials when prepared by conventional coprecipitation arising from poor diffusion and accessibility to active sites, however, prerequisites in many applications, these materials were designed as macroporous open structure. The preparation is adapted from the well-known 'inverse opals method' using polystyrene beads as template and successive impregnations of metal cations solutions into the voids. After NaOH addition, LDH-type phase is formed as proved by XRD and 27Al NMR, and LDH replica is obtained either by dissolution of PS arrays or calcination-reconstruction process. Additionally, a large variety of anions may be incorporated, while keeping the 3D macropore ordering.