Controlled Preparation of MgAl-Layered Double Hydroxide/Graphene Hybrids and Their Applications for Metal Protection

The ion-conductive nature of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) and poor dispersibility of graphene are considered to be vital problems that limit their applications in the field of metal protection. This work aims to simultaneously solve the two problems by tunable assembly of LDHs and graphene. MgAl-LDH/graphene hybrids (LGHs) with different microstructures were prepared by controlled hydrothermal method. The experiments reveal that LGHs prepared after 6 h of hydrothermal reaction are less permeable to water than LDHs and more dispersible than graphene, which makes LGHs-6/polymer coating possess a more excellent metal protection performance than pristine LDH/polymer coating and graphene/polymer coating.