Hybrid nanocomposites of layered double hydroxides: an update of their biological applications and future prospects

Recently, there has been a rapid growth in the research related to the synthesis of new materials with hierarchical structures and tailored properties. Different 2D materials like graphene, clay, and layered double hydroxides (LDHs) possessing organized nanosheets act as building blocks for such hierarchial structures. On combining with a range of foreign materials such as organic molecules, gels, polymers, inorganic, and metal nanoparticles, they develop a remarkable potential for application as a large number of advanced materials with tailored properties. Because of the cheaper cost, easier methods of preparation, biocompatibility, and high compositional variability of LDH, it is worthwhile to focus on LDH nanosheet-based hybrid materials. In the future, undoubtedly, this new generation of hybrid materials, mainly born from a world-wide research effort of various workers in the last decade, will open a large number of promising applications in many areas such as electronics, catalysis, energy, and environment more particularly in agriculture and medicine. In this review, it is tried to set in one place in a systematic way the different information available in various peer-reviewed journals in the field of medicine and agriculture. Their reported advantages, especially with reference to the targeted controlled-release behavior of different bioactive molecules, the structure of the component bioactive molecules, and the points for their future demands and scopes of improvements in these fields are discussed.