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Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are a class of materials with useful properties associated with their anion exchange abilities as well as redox and adsorptive properties for a wide range of applications including adsorbents, catalysts and their supports, electrodes, pigments, ceramic precursors, and drug carriers. In order to satisfy the requirements for each application as well as to find alternative applications, the preparation of LDHs with the desired composition and particle morphology and post-synthetic modification by the host-guest interactions have been examined. In addition, the hybridization of LDHs with various functional particles has been reported to design materials of modified, improved, and multiple functions. In the present article, the preparation, the heterostructure and the application of hybrids containing LDHs as the main component are overviewed.

A layered double hydroxide (LDH) composed of Ni 2+ and Fe 3+ with a Fe 3+ /(Ni 2+ + Fe 3+ ) ratio of 0.05, which is not commonly available, was successfully prepared by coprecipitation from an aqueous solution of glycerol containing nickel nitrate and iron nitrate. Precipitation using NaOH as a precipitating agent at room temperature or 120 °C under hydrothermal conditions gave products with micrometer-sized aggregates of nanometer-sized unshaped particles, while that using urea yielded LDHs with a foam-like porous architecture composed of platy particles with a size of 100-300 nm. The products were examined to remove Cr(VI) from an acidic (pH = 3) aqueous solution of K 2 Cr 2 O 7 by adsorption and photocatalytic reduction. The foam-like porous NiFe-LDH exhibited the highest adsorbed amount (122 mg g -1 ) and rate (0.017 g mg -1 min -1 ) in the dark and the highest rate (0.012 min -1 ) of photocatalytic Cr(VI) reduction among the NiFe-LDHs prepared in the present study, which can be explained as a positive effect of the foam-like porous architecture. These performances were superior to those of other reported LDHs, showing the importance of the composition and the particle morphology to boost the removal of Cr(VI).

NiFe layered double hydroxides (LDHs) intercalated with dioctyl sulfosuccinate with varied Fe 3+ /(Ni 2+ + Fe 3+ ) ratios (0.04-0.25) were prepared by constant-pH co-precipitation from an aqueous solution of Ni and Fe perchlorates at room temperature. The interlayer dioctyl sulfosuccinate was exchanged with carbonate by the reaction of the product with an aqueous solution of sodium carbonate. The basal spacing of the NiFe-LDHs containing carbonate varied (0.80-0.90 nm) depending on the Fe 3+ /(Ni 2+ + Fe 3+ ) ratio; larger basal spacing was attained from the LDH with smaller Fe 3+ /(Ni 2+ + Fe 3+ ) due to the weaker attractive force between the LDH layer and the interlayer anion, proving that the Fe 3+ /(Ni 2+ + Fe 3+ ) ratios were associated with the layer charge density of NiFe-LDHs.

Bismuth oxyhalides and layered alkali titanates are promising components to design high-performance hybrid photocatalysts. In this work, a hybrid photocatalyst composed of lepidocrocite-type layered cesium titanate (Cs 0.7 Ti 1.77 Li 0.23 O 4 , CsTLO) and bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) was designed rationally based on lattice matching. BiOI formed on the layered titanate by ion exchange of CsTLO with Bi cations and subsequent growth of BiOI nanodisks (6 nm in the thickness and 125 nm in the lateral size) in an aqueous solution of cesium iodide, resulting in the hybrid where BiOI nanodisks were lying flat on the layered titanate and exposed the (001) facet predominantly. The present hybrid exhibited efficient photodegradation of methylene blue (4, 10, and 14 times higher than that of CsTLO, Bi-TLO, and BiOI, respectively), which was ascribed to the efficient charge transfer in the bulk and at the interface assisted by the built-in internal electric fields and the high activity of (001) BiOI for direct oxidation of the pollutant.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs), shown as the general formula of [M 2+ 1-x M 3+ x (OH) 2 ] x+ (A n- ) x/n ∙yH 2 O, are useful for various applications such as anion exchangers/adsorbents, catalysts and catalysts' supports, and drug/gene carriers due to their structural, compositional and morphological characteristics and their variation. The x value (M 3+ /(M 2+ + M 3+ ) ratio) in layered double hydroxides (LDHs), corresponding to the layer charge density, is one of the important parameters for controlling the properties of LDHs. The x values in commonly available LDHs are limited (0.2 < x < 0.3). In order to obtain LDHs with x < 0.2, Mg 2+ Ga 3+ -LDHs with interlayer iodide were examined. The linear correlation between lattice parameter a and x value in the products with x of 0.06-0.24 was seen, suggesting the successful substitution of Mg 2+ in the brucite-like sheet with Ga 3+ . Carbonate and dodecyl sulfate types MgGa-LDH were prepared by ion exchange with carbonate anion and reconstruction in aqueous solution of sodium dodecyl sulfate. The products with x of 0.06 were dispersed in water and hexanol better than those with x of 0.24 for MgGa-LDHs containing carbonate and dodecyl sulfate, respectively, suggesting effects of the lower layer charge density on the dispersion.