Intercalation of small molecules into metal halides

Abstract

The layered materials are an extended family of solid crystals made up of a single or few thin layers of atoms stacked together by weak interlayer forces, usually van der Waals forces. These materials are liable to undergo intercalation reactions adopting unique properties and structural characteristics. A wide range of applications are known such as electrocatalysis devices, heterogeneous catalysis, supercapacitors and for energy storage. The principal objective of this research was to obtain ionic layered systems based on metal halides that present a 3D structure with NaCl-lattice type, using bromine as intercalation guest. Specifically, NaCl, KCl, NaF, KF, AgF and CsF have been employed because of their favorable interactions and unit cell size. Intercalated samples were synthesized to study the bromine insertion process by means of powder X-ray diffraction. Finally, it was studied the exfoliation properties with AFM, focusing on the intercalated cesium fluoride systems. The theoretical studies previously done indicates us these compounds present certain facilities to be exfoliated, fact that was investigated with the obtained AFM images