Macroscopically ordered hydrotalcite-type materials using self-assembled colloidal crystal template

A method to prepare three dimensional ordered macroporous LDH replicas by coprecipitation of divalent and trivalent metal cations, which takes place in the interstices of polystyrene colloidal crystal and involves successive infiltrations, was analyzed. For the LDH-PS array composite, the LDH peaks were partially masked by some large contributions resulting from the usual semicrystalline state of PS used as opal. After the infiltration precipitation and subsequent drying process, the close packing order of the PS crystal template is not distrupted. The procedure can be easily adapted to the preparation of several other LDH composites and to other layered compounds also.