title: Structural characterisation of a layered double hydroxide nanosheet.
abstract: We report the atomic-scale structure of a Zn₁₅₂Al-borate layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheet, as determined by reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) modelling of X-ray total scattering data. This study involves the extension of the RMC method to enable structural refinement of two-dimensional nanomaterials. The refined LDH models show the intra-layer geometry in this highly-exfoliated phase to be consistent with that observed in crystalline analogues, with the reciprocal-space scattering data suggesting a disordered arrangement of the Zn(2+) and Al(3+) cations within the nanosheet. The approach we develop is generalisable and so offers a method of characterising the structures of arbitrary nanosheet phases, including systems that support complex forms of disorder within the nanosheets themselves.
authors.affiliation: Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QR, UK. dermot.ohare@chem.ox.ac.uk andrew.goodwin@chem.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nicholas P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Funnell
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Leigh
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Connor
authors.forename: Matthew G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Tucker
authors.forename: Dermot
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: O'Hare
authors.forename: Andrew L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Goodwin