Acetate-intercalated Ni–In layered double hydroxides with low infrared emissivity: Synthesis, delamination and restacked to form the multilayer films

The low-emissive membrane materials have potential applications in infrared detecting technologies. Herein, we report a novel LDHs film with low infrared emissivity, which was based on the deposition of the exfoliated LDH nanosheets. The monodispersed hexagonal plate-like particles of Ni–In–CO32− LDHs were prepared by coprecipitation method with hydrothermal treatment under optimized conditions. In order to exfoliate the LDHs into nanosheets, acetate-intercalated Ni–In LDHs were prepared by anion-exchange of Ni–In–CO32− LDHs. The as-prepared acetate-intercalated LDHs exhibited excellent delaminating behavior in water and unilamellar nanosheets were easily obtained. The resulting positive-charged nanosheets were assembled onto quartz substrates to produce the multilayer films. The infrared emissivity values of all the samples were characterized. It was found that the incorporation of Ni2+ and In3+ in the host layer significantly reduced the infrared emissivity value. Moreover, the value was further reduced by the fabrication of multilayer ultrathin films, which can be ascribed to the dense orderly structure and smooth surface morphology.