Bioinspired LDH-Based Hierarchical Structural Hybrid Materials with Adjustable Mechanical Performance

Materials with ultrahigh strength, lightweight, and high toughness have an urgent demand for a wide range of applications, which require a careful design of architectures and components from the micrometer to the nanometer scale. Herein, a simple method based on ice templating is exploited to prepare a layered double hydroxide based hierarchical structural hybrid material. There are two orders of interfaces in the hierarchical structure (the first-order and the second-order interface). The mechanical properties can be precisely controlled by adjusting interfacial interactions of these two orders of interfaces. The highest strength of this hybrid material with an optimal combination of these two orders of interfacial interactions is about 230 MPa, and the Young's modulus is about 131 GPa. The above-mentioned values are higher than most common clay-based hybrids, making the strengthening strategy (strengthening materials by adjusting interfacial interactions of these two orders of interfaces) a new and effective strengthening method.