Study on exfoliation of layered perovskite-type niobates

A layered niobate, HCa2Nb3O10·1.5H2O, was treated with a tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAOH) solution to promote delamination, which produced opalescent colloidal suspension. A wavy profile of X-ray scattering from the colloidal aggregates showed close matches to the calculated structure factor, F00l(θ). Their electron diffraction pattern indicated a two-dimensional periodicity for the perovskite linkage and diffuse scattering along the sheet normal. These results lead to the conclusion that layered perovskite can be delaminated to exfoliated monolayer particles of the perovskite.