Synthesis of Nanostructured Nanoclay‐Zirconia Multilayers: a Feasibility Study

Abstract

This paper reports the first effort to synthesize a new class of inorganic nanostructured materials consisting of alternating ultrathin layers of nanoclays and oxide ceramics. A novel solution-based layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition technique was developed to prepare multilayers of hydrated Zr cations and nanoclays. This LBL deposition technique is devised by integrating an electrostatic-mediated dip coating method for making nanoclay-polymer multilayers with a successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method for making ultrathin oxide films. Nanostructured clay-zirconia multilayer composites formed through subsequent annealing. Characterization by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction confirmed that these films are uniform and crack-free, consist of no detectable impurities, and possess nanoscale-layered structure. The incorporation of nanoclays facilitates the electrostatic-mediated assembling of multilayers, enhances the structural integrity, and provides a generic framework to construct functionally graded materials. Potential applications are envisaged.

Buckling analysis of functionally graded nanobeams based on a nonlocal third-order shear deformation theory

“…With the rapid development of nanostructures, FGMs are widely used in microstructures and nanostructures such as microswitches, micropiezoactuator, thin films [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Jia et al [4] studied the forced vibration of nonhomogeneous FG microswitches under combined electrostatic, intermolecular forces, and axial residual stress.…”

Micromechanical Properties of Nanostructured Clay-Oxide Multilayers Synthesized by Layer-by-Layer Self-Assembly

“…All of the films in this paper, including (ZrO 2 ) 30 , (ZrO 2 -MMT) 30 , (ZrO 2 -MMT) 60 , (SnO 2 -MMT) 30 , and (ZrO 2 -MMT-SnO 2 -MMT) 15 multilayer films, were prepared via a layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition process as described in [15,17] (Figure 1). A NIMA ® automatic dip coater (Nima Technology Ltd., Coventry, UK) was used to deposit thin films.…”

“…For example, a linearly increasing relationship generally exists between film thickness and number of adsorption cycles, which is reported by Chen and Zhang [15] and Fendler [18]. The degree of order in produced film varies widely, or even lack, any order at all in the self-assembled nanostructured materials [19].…”

“…Nanostructured clay-oxide multilayers prepared by the LbL self-assembly technique has been reported by Chen and Zhang et al [15,16,17]. In these studies, the exfoliated clay platelet (montmorillonite, MMT) having a high aspect ratio with thickness in nanometer scale and bearing negative surface charges is used as an anionic component.…”

“…Meanwhile, the thickness, morphology, and periodicity of the nanostructured film in different processing conditions has been characterized using a variety of techniques (both in situ and post-deposition), such as elipsometric measurements, light interference, adsorption isotherms, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray reflectivity (XRR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and surface plasmon spectroscopic measurements, etc. [15,18,19,20,21,22,23]. …”