title: Ultrathin hybrid films of clay minerals.
abstract: Smectites or swelling clay minerals are naturally occurring nanomaterials that can be fully delaminated to elementary clay mineral platelets in dilute aqueous dispersion. This review article gives an overview of the recent progress on how the elementary clay mineral platelets can be reorganized in monolayered or multilayered hybrid nanofilms by layer-by-layer assembly or the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. In the latter case one hybrid layer consists of one layer of elementary clay mineral platelets with a theoretical thickness of 0.96 nm, covered on one side by amphiphilic cations. The organization of the elementary clay mineral platelets and that of the adsorbed amphiphilic cations in the nanofilms has been studied in great detail by ATR-FTIR, UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, XRD and AFM. The nanofilms carry functional properties, such as chirality, optical nonlinearity and magnetism, which are due to the nature of the amphiphilic cations and to the organization of both the amphiphilic molecules and the elementary clay mineral platelets.
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering Physics and Mathematics and Center for New Materials, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
authors.forename: Robin H A
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Ras
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Umemura
authors.forename: Cliff T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamagishi
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Schoonheydt
mesh_terms: D000538:Aluminum Silicates / Q000737:chemistry*; D002412:Cations / Q000737:chemistry; D000077215:Clay; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008903:Minerals / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D012995:Solubility; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013997:Time Factors; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D000538:Aluminum Silicates; D002412:Cations; D008903:Minerals; D014867:Water; D000077215:Clay