Layered double hydroxides: where should research stress on for massive scaling up?

For more than half a century, layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have attracted great attention from the scientific community. These materials belong to a rare anionic clay group and have demonstrated amazing physicochemical properties, leading to disruptive, cost-effective and eco-friendly applications for health, environment and agriculture. However, LDHs are not widely used in daily items, nor are they massively applied in industry despite their very good potential for large-scale development. This study looks at the current shortcomings preventing the industrial implementation of LDH powders while evidencing and discussing the strategies to encourage research to bridge the gaps on this topic. This perspective highlights the potentiality for co-precipitation and mechanosynthesis to produce massively layered double hydroxides for disruptive applications providing several gaps are addressed, notably the control of the particle agglomeration.