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We have synthesized heterostructured zinc oxide-aluminosilicate nanohybrids through a hydrothermal reaction between the colloidal suspension of exfoliated montmorillonite nanosheets and the sol solution of zinc acetate. According to X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm, and field emission-scanning electron microscopic analyses, it was found that the intercalation of zinc oxide nanoparticles expands the basal spacing of the host montmorillonite clay, and the crystallites of the nanohybrids are assembled to form a house-of-cards structure. From UV-vis spectroscopic investigation, it becomes certain that calcined nanohybrid contains two kinds of the zinc oxide species in the interlayer space of host lattice and in mesopores formed by the house-of-cards type stacking of the crystallites. Zn K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure/extended X-ray absorption fine structure analyses clearly demonstrate that guest species in the nanohybrids exist as nanocrystalline zinc oxides with wurzite-type structure.

Highly porous layered inorganic-inorganic nanohybrids were prepared by pillaring SiO2-TiO2 nanosol particles with aluminosilicate layers. According to powder X-ray diffraction analysis, the basal spacing of SiO2-TiO2 pillared aluminosilicate (STPC) calcined at 400 degrees C was determined to be larger than 40 A. N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm measurements showed the STPC to have a large Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of approximately 590 m2/g, of which approximately 70% originates from micropores with a size range of 8-16 A. The sorption behavior of various solvent vapors such as hexane, methanol, and water reveals internal pore surfaces of the STPC to be hydrophobic. A distinct blue shift of absorption edge in UV-vis spectra clearly demonstrates that the nanosized TiO2 particles are formed between silicate layers as a pillar. Fourier transform infrared and extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis at the Ti K edge reveals that the pillared titania exists in the form of anatase-structured TiO2 nanocrystals, not in the form of covalently bonded mixed particles of TiO2-SiO2. On the basis of the present findings, we are able to conclude that the quantum-sized TiO2 and SiO2 particles are independently intercalated to form a multilayer stacking intracrystalline structure in the gallery space of aluminosilicate clay.

We have synthesized new, efficient, visible light active photocatalysts through the incorporation of highly electronegative non-transition metal Pb or Sn ions into the perovskite lattice of Ba(In(1/3)Pb(1/3)M'(1/3))O3 (M = Sn, Pb; M' = Nb, Ta). X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption spectroscopic, and energy dispersive spectroscopic microprobe analyses reveal that tetravalent Pb or Sn ions exist in the B-site of the perovskite lattice, along with In and Nb/Ta ions. According to diffuse UV-vis spectroscopic analysis, the Pb-containing quaternary metal oxides Ba(In(1/3)Pb(1/3)M'(1/3))O3 possess a much narrower band gap (E(g) approximately 1.48-1.50 eV) when compared to the ternary oxides Ba(In(1/2)M'(1/2))O3 (E(g) approximately 2.97-3.30 eV) and the Sn-containing Ba(In(1/3)Sn(1/3)M'(1/3))O3 derivatives (E(g) approximately 2.85-3.00 eV). Such a variation of band gap energy upon the substitution is attributable to the broadening of the conduction band caused by the dissimilar electronegativities of the B-site cations. In contrast to the ternary or the Sn-substituted quaternary compounds showing photocatalytic activity under UV-vis irradiation, the Ba(In(1/3)Pb(1/3)M'(1/3))O3 compounds induce an efficient photodegradation of 4-chlorophenol under visible light irradiation (lambda > 420 nm). The present results highlight that the substitution of electronegative non-transition metal cations can provide a very powerful way of developing efficient visible light harvesting photocatalysts through tuning of the band structure of a semiconductive metal oxide.

Solid-solid transformation mechanism of Ga Keggin-type ion intercalated clay into sodalite has been clarified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR spectroscopy, and X-rayabsorption spectroscopy (XAS). To follow the structural evolution precisely by XANES and EXAFS, the XAS active element containing polycation [Ga13O4(OH)24(H2O)12]7+ was intercalated into montmorillonite (MMT). FT-IR and XAS spectra confirm that the formation of sodalite framework is initiated by the delocalized rearrangement between silicate networks and collapsed interlayered Ga species, and is followed by the incorporation of Al in the octahedral sheet of clay (MMT). According to the XAS studies, it is found that the formation of Ga(Al)-O-Si species is strongly influenced by the trivalent cations, which are rapidly changed in the environment, followed by reaction with the silicate network of clay during the solid-solid transformation.

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of powder and oriented films of montmorillonite, hectorite, and saponite intercalated with [Cu(cyclam)](2+) (cyclam = 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane) exhibit three components: an orientation-dependent component without hyperfine features, an orientation-dependent component with hyperfine features, and an orientation-independent component without hyperfine feature. EPR spectra of [Cu(cyclam)](2+)-saponite, which exhibit only two components and the best resolved hyperfine features, were simulated. The spectra indicate that a large portion of the saponite platelets are inclined to the glass surface, although they tend to align with their basal planes parallel to the glass surface. The orientation-dependent spectra could be simulated by introducing a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation of 20 degrees for the inclination angle. The standard deviation may be used as a disorder parameter for the microcrystals assembled on glass plates. Spectral simulation also shows that the CuN(4) plane of [Cu(cyclam)](2+) is parallel to the clay layers. EPR spectra of some other partially oriented systems are also discussed.