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Effect of freezing on the swelling of clay minerals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

K. Norrish
Affiliation:
Division of Soils, C.S.I.R.O., Adelaide, Australia
J. A. Rausell-Colom
Affiliation:
Division of Soils, C.S.I.R.O., Adelaide, Australia
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Abstract

It has been known for some time that when a gel of montmorillonite is freeze-dried the residual clay retains the volume and shape of the gel, and forms a skeleton of low density and some rigidity. Because there is no apparent change in the gel structure during freeze-drying, the dry residues have been studied in the past in an effort to determine the structure of the gels. However, X-ray diffraction measurements have shown that, as a result of freeze-drying, the distance between the elementary layers of Na-montmorillonite drops from high spacings (>30 Å) to zero. The present investigation demonstrates that the main reduction in interlayer spacing takes place on freezing, with a further small collapse on drying. Na-montmorillonite gels, swollen oriented aggregates of Na-montmorillonite and Na-nontronite, and swollen single crystals of Li-vermiculite and butylammonium-vermiculite, all behave in the above manner.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1962

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