Influence of pH on the Formation of Tyr/LDH Nanohybrids

Abstract

In this article, the intercalation of amphoteric amino acid tyrosine (Tyr) into LDH by the co‐precipitation method is systematically examined. The influence of pH values has been examined. Powder X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, specific surface areas and pore size distributions, and thermal analysis have been employed for the characterization of the nanocomposites. The nanohybrids were found to have expanded layered structure, indicating that the biomolecules were intercalated into the gallery as anions. The intercalation of amino acids resulted in the increase of surface areas and pore volumes, and these values increased with increasing of biomolecules intercalated. TEM analysis revealed that with the decrease of pH values, the nanohybrids changed from hexagonal particles to spherical ones. Moreover, the configuration of Tyr anions varied under different pH values, the configuration changing from monolayer to bilayers with more biomolecules in the gallery.

Keywords:

• Layered double hydroxides
• intercalation
• amino acids
• nanohybrid

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral Research funds.