Interlayer Expansion and Morphological Transformation of Zinc-Aluminium Anionic Clay through Methyl Orange Intercalation

This study reports the Zinc-Aluminium layered double hydroxide compound (ZAL) intercalated with organic anions of methyl orange (ZAMO) dye via the co-precipitate method.The intercalation of ZAL with Methyl Orange (MO) was carried out under optimal conditions with a concentration of 0.2 M methyl orange, a pH of 7.5 0.2 and an ageing time of 18 hours.The ZAL and ZAMO were characterised using Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Attenuated Total Reflectance -Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) to confirm the intercalation of the guest ion.The overall PXRD pattern of ZAL and ZAMO shows an expansion of the basal spacing from 8.7 to 24.7 , indicating excellent intercalation of the ZAL compound with MO.The FTIR spectrum of ZAL and ZAMO shows two significant bands at 3383 cm -1 and 3418 cm -1 attributed to the water molecules and water in the interlayer lattice respectively, and band peaks at 1170 cm -1 corresponding to the sulfonic acid of MO, confirming the presence of MO in ZAMO.The spatial orientation of ZAMO expresses the interlayer region value for the ZAL nanocomposites of 17.1 .The FESEM revealed the morphology of ZAL with an irregular, agglomerated, dense and non-porous plate-like structure after the ZAL was intercalated with MO and the structure exhibited an agglomerate with porous and irregular size and shape.These findings demonstrate the effective intercalation of MO into the ZAL framework, resulting in a nanocomposite with modified structural and morphological properties.