Synthesis and structural characterization of CuCoFe–layered double hydroxides

Abstract

Layered double hydrox ides (LDHs) are a class of anion clays consisting of brucite-like host layers and interlayer anions, with versatility in composition, morphology and architecture. The CoFe- LDH catalyst with Co2+/Fe3+ molar ratio of 2 was synthesized via simple co- precipitation method. The binary CoFe-LDH catalyst was modified by insertion of Cu2+,within the brucite-like sheets to obtain ternary CuCoFe-LDH with different Cu2+/(Cu2++Co2+) molar contents of 35%, 60% and 100% . To investigate the impact of the copper content, a detailed characterization study was done to maximize the structural information through XRD, FT-IR, thermogravimetric measurements & N2 adsorption. The XRD results revealed that the CoFe, copper containing CoFe and CuFe prepared samples have typical layered structure with 3R layer & were well-crystallized. The copper rich LDH sample has Cu(OH)2& Cu2O as impurity phases beside LDH phase formation in opposite to authors reported the impossibility of CuFe-LDH phases formation due to strong Jahn–Teller effect.