Fabrication and characterization of hierarchical Mg/Ni/Al layered double hydroxide framework on aluminum foam

•Mg/Ni/Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) framework with hierarchical structure was successfully fabricated on the surface of Al foam by the in situ growth method.•Two steps of synthesis process were carried out through preparation of thermodynamically unstable MgAl-LDH film on Al substrate and transformation of MgAl-LDH film to MgNiAl-LDH film.•The higher concentration of Mg2+ than Ni2+ in parent solution was adopted in order to suppress the competitive effect of Ni2+.

A hierarchical Mg/Ni/Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) framework has been fabricated via the in situ crystallization process on aluminum foam (denoted as Mg/Ni/Al LDH/Al-foam). XRD and SEM confirm that the as-prepared Mg/Ni/Al LDH displays flowerlike microspheres (2–5 μm) composed of numerous LDH nanoplatelets (1–2 μm in width and ~50 nm in thickness). The BET analysis shows that the specific surface area of the Mg/Ni/Al LDH is 96.8 m²/g owing to its hierarchical structure, which is much higher than that of the traditional bi-metal Mg/Al LDH. Two steps of the synthesis strategy were carried out in order to eliminate the competitive difference between cations composed of LDH. The present work provided a new strategy for a scale-up synthesis of well-crystallized tri-metal LDH materials on metal substrate by the in situ crystallization technique.